Centered Care Initiative Essays

Centered Care Initiative Essays Centered Care Initiative Paper Centered Care Initiative Paper The initiative can be implemented as soon as there is a consensus from the team to be committed to adapting a changed mindset in how the operations approach would take place. It would be when a commitment is done towards a vision of providing total quality health care through a family-centered initiative in the ICU. Within a time period of a couple of months or more, the leader together with the key players in the hospital would undergo a series of meetings and research regarding the family-centered-care initiatives in other hospitals and how it could be conducted in this institutions. The concerns of the staff members addressed during forums in the past before the initiative was approved would be considered and would be addressed in the said planning and research stages. During this stage, the educational materials that would be used in the seminars would be compiled. When the planning and research stage has been concluded, the staff can then launch at least a month long of announcement and scheduling regarding the introduction of the initiative as well as the posting of schedules for the seminars that would take place to equip the staff members regarding this implementation. This would also provide for ample time to reserve the venue as well as reproduce the educational materials to be used in the said seminars. Proper research should be done so the staff would be able to implement an evidence based approach. For four months or more, a series of seminars would be conducted with the educational materials designed to promote the importance of the perspective of the patients and the families in the care-giving process and how they are valued member of the staff. It would also provide for techniques and important considerations to inform the staff of their specific responsibilities as well as how they would efficiently relate to the families of the patients. They must learn from the other hospital who has adapted the same approach even it was in different units. During this time, the staff would also learn the rules they need to adhere to uphold the input of the families at the same time not compromise the quality of the medical practice in the ICU. Such seminars would change the staff’s perception about the patients (Conway et al. 2006). It would also make the staff aware of the current literature available as education always leads to better equipment for the staff (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center). By the end of such seminars for the medical staff, there would be a recognized need to develop a new culture to address more problems but until then, it is an unceasing process of adapting a culture until it has become the new normalcy. By the commitment of the staff into professing the significance of the patients and families as essential to the development of the health of the patients, this project can speed up its course. It would also lead to an eradication of misconceptions about the family-centered care approach and how it can be adaptable in the ICU (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center). The advantages and barriers would be set out and in that way, there would be contingency plans that that staff would be able to plan out before hand (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center). The team can now venture into inviting families to participate in the initiative. Initial seminars directly for families can give them confidence regarding the roles that they may play with this new program. It is important to include them because they are also stakeholders in the initiative as well as beneficiaries. The stage would be trust-building. This is very important and it can be done through dialogue with the leaders and with the patients and families themselves. It can be developed over time simultaneously as they are adapting the new system. Once the procedure of including the families gets practiced over and over again, the staff would have an easier time in providing a customer service approach in the process of the patients’ recovery. When the staff is able to enlist families into the program, seminars and training programs would then take place once again, this time for the family members involved in the collaboration (Conway et al. 2006). From such seminars, other family members from different units or hospitals who have already adapted such a system can actually share their experiences with a family-centered approach (Conway et al. 2006). With this, the family can be confident that such procedures could work, even in the ICU, in fact more so in the ICU. The stakeholders would be the patients, the families and the medical team. The medical team would to be the core group that adapts members of the families of the ICU patients and should facilitate the collaboration. This team includes the attending physicians, the nurses, the specialists and the unit manager. They have to be educated not only in the condition of the patients and the possible scenarios that would take place but in terms of addressing the needs of the families as well as empathizing with them in this critical time. When discussions and collaborations occur, it is imperative that at least the staff has already undergone trainings for it and has already accepted the shared vision for the initiative. Commitment is the top qualification for this initiative to be successful. The staff members who are not committed to the vision of the initiative must not join collaborations just yet because it may provide some negative energy in the mixed team of medical and non-medical team. Evaluation Process Overall Process. The process of shifting from a traditional culture into a new one can be very risky and fearsome for an organization to adapt. There are number of things to have to consider before actually implementing it. The number one consideration would be the reception of the people. When they are so used to an environment of control over the families and the patients, taking this control may lead to different things. However, the good overweighs the bad. It is also safe to remind the ICU staff that other units in the hospital have been commended for applying similar programs as seen with the feedbacks of the patients seen through the letters of gratitude the hospital receives from the patients. In the ICU, there is a need to address those that are suffering psychologically and the organization has been neglecting that. The choice must be made between maintaining what is familiar and adapting what is needed in order to develop into a better health care institutions. There must be a realization that all things that are gained hard are worth-having. Being able to connect with the families and providing them with a sense of purpose as well as seeing there significance in the process can open up a lot of opportunities for more change that brings about progress. It is similar to adapting a new pair of eyes and having new pairs of hands that help in the process in the person of accepting the families as part of the health care team. Staffing would not be a problem as much as before, if it ever was, because there are new members of the team and the patients came with them. Having to develop a common ground with the families and the staff was the hard part; compromise is not always an easy thing especially if both parties are accountable for something very important to them, for the patients, their family member’s welfare and for the medical teams, their profession. At the end of the day, the process of seeing eye to eye boils down to one thing, the patient’s well-being. It is important to practice ethical leadership and to recognize that both parties should not be against each other for power and control, but they should work together, collaborate for the highest possible quality of health care they can provide when they are in partnership. The realization that even if the medical staff, had done fine without the assistance of the families, they are given the chance to make their performance even better because of the new people in the team that has the same desires of providing good health to the patient under critical conditions. Evaluation of Procedures. Trainings and seminars are very effective in addressing the need for information for both families and the medical staff. It lays down the ground rules that are needed to establish a framework for a family-centered approach. It does not necessarily mean that the system would be perfect right away; one of the biggest barriers would be disappointments when things would not go smoothly when things start. Although, this is what the team should hope for, it should also be prepared by the barriers brought about by a lot of differences in terms of attitudes, education and perception. The practice of bouncing back from frustrating encounters must be developed (Stefano Wasylyshyn 2005). Leadership means having to cope with unpredictable circumstances (Stefano Wasylyshyn 2005). The high risk of operating in the intensive care unit heightens the stress of making mistakes. This is the reason why capabilities must be developed more in adapting to such instances. Empathy should also be developed (Stefano Wasylyshyn 2005). It could be started with the effort to heighten the sensitivity of the staff to the needs of the families, verbally and non-verbally communicated, the staff must always be aware of it (Stefano Wasylyshyn 2005). Adapting a shared vision is something that inspires the team to work together and to compromise for the sake of the good of the patient. A reminder of this concept always helps the team be of high spirits and be determined to work harder together. Changed Perceptions. The staff adapts a culture of safety that is translated in the availability of clinical information that is tools for an effective patient care (Institute of Family-Centered Care 2007). They see now the gravity of ineffective communication that lacks, this leads to miscoordination and vagueness in the procedures that families used to blindly permit to. They have adapted patient-centeredness that valued the families and promoted their adequacy in their roles for sharing the â€Å"decision-making, coordination and continuity of care, communication (ease of access to information, amount of information desired by patients and families, and timely disclosure of adverse events), timeliness of care, emotional and physical comfort, involvement of family as desired by the patient, and use of patient and family feedback to improve care† (Institute of Family-Centered Care 2007). This was seen as important before but highly neglected by the staff. The family also trusts in the system more and in their rights and abilities as family members in behalf of the patients. They have seen the effectiveness of the implementation as they have joined the team and have seen the efficiency due to better communication methods between them and the staff (Institute of Family-Centered Care 2007). There is also equity of health status for all populations served (Institute of Family-Centered Care 2007). The families need not to have medical degrees to have a valid say in the conditions of their family members. They have also gained confidence to be included in the collaboration as the trust that the staff and the family has developed became the bedrock for an effective operation (Sodomka 2006). They are respected and they are given the capability to respond to the knowledge and information given to them in a manner that they can understand. They also take part in the evaluation progress that could be for the further development of the procedure (Sodomka 2006). Feedback and focus group discussions were not the only way to improve the program anymore but a vital communication between the stakeholders (Sodomka 2006). There is also a realization that a change in the culture is actually possible in even in a high risk health care system (Sodomka 2006). There is lesser restriction, however things have become more progressive as patients and families exercise choices in the full extent and they are given more control, not only over their health providers but over the illness. Creative Leadership Practice Lessons from the Initiative. The initiative has taught a lot about being open-minded. It is alright to step out of the box. In a time of massive submissiveness, it is important to give people choices. Leaders are pioneers and they are the one who challenge the system and in this case the organizational culture (Kouzes 2003). More than choice, it is important to give people informed a choice as it empowers them. Leaders would want the people they reach to be empowered and be enabled to act on their own because of the influence of good leadership. The problem with traditional models is that they have been accepted for so long that changing them could mean deviation and that could translate into something unacceptable especially in a culture that involves very high risk. Leaders should empower their followers to take risks but he must also be ready to be accountable for the consequences (Kouzes 2003). To minimize the possibility of negative effects of certain changes, it is wise if the leader take the initiative to study and to research on the endeavor and to compare the circumstance and to make judgment from there. It is also important to talk to people and consider varying alternatives. It can be useful to watch out for avenues for this. Trainings and seminars are avenues that can provide massive opportunity to learn, to interact and to question. It must be vital for the organization to be teachable as well as for the leaders to be open to different alternatives as well. The perception of the families and the patients is given priority here. In a long time, their perception has been left in the dark and to actually open up new opportunities for them to voice out their concerns and to give them an active role gives the organization hope and empowers it to be better. However, the perception of the staff is also vital as they are the soldiers of the hospital. Leaders of change need to hear their concerns and empathize with their fears in order to make the change more feasible and more efficient (Cloud 2006). The initiative also pushed for a stronger character in terms of relating with different kinds of people. It is not only a communication on a minimal level anymore. It is intensive collaboration. The medical staff does not only communicate with medical people anymore in an in-depth level, they also do so with family members. Leadership Development. It is true that leaders should be visionaries, but in certain cases, realistic consideration must be done in order for the vision to be a reality (Kouzes 2003). There are cases wherein people would not give the responses that would be favorable for the initiative. However, this does not mean the initiative dies with one person disagreeing. It developed leadership in terms of actually having ownership over the project wherein the leader would do everything to protect it and to keep it afloat despite adversity and rejection (Cloud 2006). Accountability may be a big and scary word however it does develop the leader’s character. Planning and thinking things over has been the strongest training that can be taken out of this initiative as well as the ability to empathize with other people. It is always easier to assume how they are feeling but actually taking time to communicate changes the scenario a great deal (Institute for Family-Centered Care 2007). Leadership Perceptions. It is also a positive thing to be able to see your visions translate into realities as they become goals that are achievable. As the vision shifts into goals, it soon translates into something that is actually perceived and then implemented by the group. It starts with the time the leader took to care about the things that are not right and it is strengthened by determination, discernment, planning and encouragement from the staff and for the staff. This initiative has exemplified that concept of servant leadership wherein the passion for the vision would make the visionary serve the stakeholders in order for it to be a reality. The leader would go out of his comfort zone to talk to the different groups of stakeholders and empathize with them to actually know how they can be served better by this initiative and how the leader can make this initiative into a win-win situation. Leadership Credo. As a person who works for the health care industry, more than safety and proper implementation, empathy and compassion for the staff, the patients and the family’s tops should be a priority to truly serve the people around you and address their needs and to uphold the values of the organization, especially in the critical care unit of the ICU. References Cloud, H. (2006). Integrity. New York: HarperCollins. Conway, J. , Johnson, B. , Edgman-Levitan, S. , Schlucter, J. , Ford, D. , Sodomka, P. and Simmons, L. (2006). A Road Map for the Future. Institute for Family Centered Care. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (n. d). Facilitator’s Guide on Family Centered Rounds. Kouzes, J. (2003). Business leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Sodomka, P. (2006, August 20). Engaging patients families: A high leverage tool for health care leaders. Hospitals Health Networks (80)8. Stefano, S. Wasylyshyn, K. (2005). Integrity, courage, empathy (ICE): Three leadership essentials. Human Resource Plannin, (28)4, 5+.