Areas of Focus
The Family Advisory Council serves the hospital, patients, families, and caregivers in five key areas. Each area of focus allows our members to create the most impact through their varied experiences. All members are encouraged to participate in projects in any of the below areas.
Family Support Group
The Family Support Group, in partnership with hospital staff, provides support to families and caregivers with a child in the hospital. The Group focuses on three types of support:
- Events – our events are intended to brighten a hospital stay on holidays and other special occasions such as Halloween, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Valentine’s Day. Some past examples of our events include working with child life specialists to surprise our patients with costumes on Halloween and giving out books during Black History Month.
- Programs – our support programs connect families who have a child in the hospital with parents who had a similar experience. For example, the Family Advisory Council holds virtual support meetings, open to all pediatric families. We also offer a Parent-to-Parent Mentoring Program.
- In-Person Meetings – we host family support lunches, teas, and dinners to provide a space for parents and caregivers to meet other parents and have a meal, snack, tea, or coffee. Trained members of the Family Advisory Council and social workers are present to listen and offer support.
KCH FAC Members and Child Life host Halloween party 2018
2021 Mother's Day Celebration in the NICU
2021 Father's Day Celebration in the NICU
Advisory Committees
Family Advisory Council members are active participants on more than 20 hospital Advisory Committees. We work alongside physicians, nurses, administrators, and other hospital staff to provide a family perspective and to promote patient- and family-centered care. The Advisory Committees cover diverse subjects including: Quality & Safety, Bereavement, Operations, Facilities, and Patient Experience.
Family Faculty
The Family Faculty is a group of Family Advisory Council members who partner with hospital staff to co-educate medical students, fellows, residents, and nurses through the use of interactive case studies based on actual events. The participation of Family Advisory Council members is an important part of the hospital’s focus on patient- and family-centered care. The Family Faculty program offers the unique opportunity for staff to practice role playing with parents in a no-risk setting and receive feedback from a parent perspective.
The Family Faculty’s goals are to:
- Promote patient- and family-centered care by creating an environment of mutual respect and collaboration between parents and the care team
- Provide a parent's perspective on how to effectively interact and communicate with families
FEEDBACK FROM FAMILY FACULTY SESSIONS
This has taught me to be more mindful of what words I use with patients and families and will improve my nursing care
The patient/family centered care presentation was extremely helpful to hear directly from parents of patients who were in the hospital.
I am definitely more cognizant of parents' emotions/feelings of guilt and uncertainty in the hospital. I will make points to reassure them they did the right thing by bringing their child to the hospital.
Quality & Safety
The hospital is devoted to providing the highest quality of care in a safe environment for patients, families, caregivers, and hospital staff. As part of our effort to ensure this, the hospital is a member of Solutions for Patient Safety Network. It is a network of over 145 children’s hospitals that share the vision that no child will ever experience serious harm while receiving medical care. This represents the strongest effort to date by children’s hospitals to create a universally safe and healing environment for all children in their care. The network believes that each hospital can achieve its goals faster by putting aside competition and sharing its safety successes and failures. We all learn from and all teach each other to ensure every child is safe in our care.
Our family advisors participate in Solutions for Patient Safety Network in the following ways:
- Attended the New York State Regional Conferences since its first meeting in 2015, and each year thereafter
- Take part on Hospital-Acquired Conditions Committees
- Acted as Leader of the Family Engagement Group for the New York State Regional Solutions for Patient Safety Network in 2020
- Serve as an advisor on the newly created Solutions for Patient Safety Network Ambulatory Safety CLABSI (Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infection) Taskforce
Family Advisory Council members, in partnership with hospital staff, design and develop programs to help educate parents and caregivers on how to keep their child safe during a hospital stay. One such program is Speak Up for Safety, where we partnered with hospital staff to create safety cards to help staff promote patient engagement at the bedside and to empower families to raise concerns.
We also create programs in collaboration with hospital staff across several disciplines. One notable program is the Simulation-based Discharge Program. This program ensures that caregivers of patients with medical devices such as tracheostomy tubes, feeding tubes, etc. learn how to care for these devices through hands-on simulation-based education prior to hospital discharge. This program improves caregivers’ comfort in caring for their child at home as well as connects them with parents with similar experiences via our Parent-to-Parent Mentoring Program. Another is Code ONC, a protocol to ensure timely administration of antibiotics to cancer patients with fever and neutropenia (low white blood cell count) upon their arrival in the Emergency Department.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are embedded in all initiatives of the Family Advisory Council. In collaboration with hospital staff, the Family Advisory Council focuses on building an inclusive environment by:
- Creating a Family Advisory Council that reflects the hospital’s patients and families
- Partnering with the hospital to bring the family perspective to its diversity, equity, and inclusion training, education, and support programs
- Empowering our members to effect meaningful change by giving them seats at the table
Distribution of Books for Black History Month 2021