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Showing results for tags 'Patient / family support'.
Found 285 results
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Content ArticleThis Australian study in Health Expectations aimed to evaluate the implementation of 'Calling for Help'(C4H), an intervention for parents to escalate care if they are concerned about their child's clinical condition. The study used a convenience sample of 75 parents from inpatient areas during the audit, and the authors held interviews with ten parents who had expressed concern about their child's clinical condition and five focus groups with 35 ward nurses. The authors found that there was an improvement in the level of parent awareness of C4H, which was viewed positively by both parents and nurses. To achieve a high level of parent awareness in a sustainable way, a multifaceted approach is required and further strategies will be required for parents to feel confident enough to use C4H and to address communication barriers.
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Content ArticleThis standard operating procedure (SOP) for Leicester Royal Infirmary Children's Hospital outlines the process to be followed at times of increased pressure on services caused by increased acuity or activity in the pathway for non-elective care.
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Content ArticleThis article in Time reviews the documentary film 'To Err is Human', which explores the tragic outcomes of medical errors and the medical culture that allows them to persist. The film follows the Sheridans, a family from Boise, Idaho on their journey to understand how two major medical errors befell their family: one that contributed to a case of cerebral palsy, and another that involved a delayed cancer diagnosis and ended in death.
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Content ArticleThis webpage provides information about patient rights and responsibilities while under the care of John Hopkin's Children's Center. It includes the following resources and guides: Patient and family handbook Preparation Pain management Your child’s care team Rooms Meals Visitation Patient safety Parent and family journal
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Content ArticleThis study in Health Expectations aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to implementing a parent escalation of care process: Calling for Help (C4H). Guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework, the authors carried out audits, semi-structured interviews and focus groups in an Australian paediatric hospital where a parent escalation of care process was introduced in the previous six months. The authors found that although there was a low level of awareness about C4H in practice, there was in-principle support for the concept. Initial strategies had primarily targeted policy change without taking into account the need for practice and organisational behaviour changes.
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Content ArticleThis document outlines the standard operating procedure (SOP) adopted by University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, relating to parental involvement in escalation of clinical care for acutely ill children. It aims to clarify the process of empowering parents to escalate concerns if they are worried about the clinical condition and care being delivered to their child, or themselves if they are a patient. It also aims to ensure accurate and appropriate information is provided to parents on admission (elective and acute) regarding how they should escalate concerns about the care their child is receiving.
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Content Article
HypoBaby blog - The beginning… Diagnosis (20 August 2018)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Diabetes
The HypoBaby blog is written by the parents of Noah, a young boy who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a baby. In this post, they describe Noah's diagnosis and why it took so long to work out that it was diabetes causing his symptoms. Noah ended up in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and needed emergency treatment. They highlight the importance of being aware of the symptoms of type 1 diabetes, stating that if they had been aware of the symptoms, he may have been diagnosed sooner. -
Content ArticleThis framework produced by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) aims to improve how healthcare organisations recognise and respond to children at risk of deterioration. A safer system can work in partnership with families and patients, develop a patient safety culture and support ongoing learning. The framework covers: Patient safety culture Partnership with families Recognising deterioration Responding to deterioriation Open and consistent learning Education and training
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Content ArticleThe aim of this study in Australian Critical Care was to develop an evidence-based paediatric early warning system for infants and children, that takes into consideration a variety of paediatric healthcare contexts and addresses barriers to escalation of care. The development process resulted in an agreed uniform ESCALATION system incorporating a whole-system approach to promote critical thinking, situational awareness for the early recognition of paediatric clinical deterioration as well as timely and effective escalation of care. Incorporating family involvement was an important and new component of the system.
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Content ArticleThis document outlines the Escalation Policy for Leicester Children’s Emergency Department. It identifies five particular factors that lead to difficulty within the department. Acknowledging that these issues can be closely interlinked and may not occur in isolation, it provides practical way to deal with these factors to try and prevent secondary events. Staffing Overcrowding Inflow Outflow Acuity
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News ArticleAbout 4,000 UK victims of the infected blood scandal are to receive interim compensation payments of £100,000 by the end of this month. It is being paid to those whose health is failing after developing blood borne viruses like hepatitis and HIV. It is also being paid to partners of people who have died. Conan McIlwrath, from Larne in County Antrim, who is among the 100 or so victims affected in Northern Ireland said it was "very much welcomed". "This is the first compensation that's ever been paid - anything prior has been support," he told BBC News NI. All victims have campaigned for actual 'compensation' as they have said only this would acknowledge decades of physical and social injury, as well as loss of earnings and the cost of care. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 October 2022
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Content ArticleSafety communication refers to the sharing of safety information within organisations in order to mitigate hazards and improve risk management. External stakeholders, such as patients and carers, also communicate safety information to healthcare organisations. This article in the Journal of Risk Research examines the nature of safety communication behaviours seen in patients and their families by identifying and examining 410 narrative accounts. The author found that the success of patient and family safety communication in reducing risk was variable. Problems in hospital safety culture such as high workloads and downplaying safety problems, meant that information provided was often not acted upon.
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Content ArticleTransitions of care between hospital departments are necessary, but they may disrupt care coordination, such as discharge planning. Family carers often serve as liaisons between the patient and healthcare professionals, but they frequently experience exclusion from care planning during intrahospital transfers (IHTs). This has the potential to decrease their awareness of patients’ clinical status, postdischarge needs and carer preparation. This study aimed to explore family carers’ perceptions about IHTs, patient and carer ratings of patient discharge readiness and carer self-perception of preparation to engage in at home care.
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News Article
Why are hospitals still using Covid rules to keep fathers out of maternity wards?
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
At 9.16am Florence Wilkinson gave birth to a healthy baby boy by planned caesarean section. The team of NHS doctors and midwives worked like a well-oiled machine, performing what to them was a standard operation, while also showing real kindness. After a short stint in a close observation bay, Florence was moved onto the postnatal ward. Still anaesthetised, Florence was completely reliant on her partner Ben to help her recover from the birth and feed her son in his first hours of life. Yet just a few hours later, the scene was very different. Due to Covid protocol, Ben was not able to stay overnight. At 8pm, midwives bustled around briskly ejecting fathers and birth partners from the ward – and what followed was one of the hardest, most frightening nights of Florence's life. She was alone with a newborn, yet during the course of that night she only saw a midwife once. She was still recovering from my operation and unable to pick up her baby. An exhausted healthcare assistant told Florence she didn’t have time to help and the newborn didn’t feed for seven hours. There simply weren’t enough staff to look after the mothers, but no partner to advocate for them either. A review of the maternity policies listed on the websites of 90 hospital trusts in England reveals that 54% still restrict partners from staying overnight after birth. While a few trusts have always limited access at night, many admit to bringing in restrictions during the pandemic which they continue to implement to this day. “It is deeply concerning to hear that some Trusts are continuing to implement restrictions on visiting, such as limited postnatal visiting overnight, under the premise of Covid, particularly at this stage in the pandemic,” says Francesca Treadaway, director of engagement at the charity Birthrights. “There is overwhelming evidence, built up since March 2020, of the impact Covid restrictions in maternity had on women giving birth. It must be remembered that blanket policies are rarely lawful and any policies implemented should explicitly consider people’s individual circumstances.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 13 October 2022 -
Content ArticlePeople with a learning disability are more than twice as likely to die from avoidable causes than the rest of the population. Actor Tommy Jessop and BBC Panorama investigated some of the stories of families who say they were let down by their medical care.
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Content Article
NHSE - Commitment to carers
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in NHS England
With 1.4 million people providing 50 or more carer hours a week for a partner, friend or family member, carers make a significant contribution to society and the NHS. NHS England has developed 37 commitments to carers spread across eight key priorities, that have been developed in partnership with carers, patients, partner organisations and care professionals. Some of the areas covered include: raising the profile of carers education and training person-centred coordinated care primary care This webpage contains information on: Supporting carers in general practice: a framework of quality markers How to identify and support unpaid carers Supporting commissioners End of year progress summary -
Content Article
AvMA case study: Chloe's story
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Risk management and legal issues
This article tells the story of two-year-old Chloe, who died after hospital staff failed to recognise that she had meningitis, sending her home after her parents first took her to A&E. The NHS Trust carried out an internal investigation which identified many areas where care should have been better and set out a range of recommendations for improving care of children in A&E in the future. The Trust only apologised to the family after an out-of-court settlement was made. -
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In this blog, Lotty Tizzard, Patient Safety Learning's Content and Engagement Manager, writes about a recent experience taking her son to a local walk-in centre. She describes the negative response she received when asking questions about her son's treatment, and considers the potentially dangerous consequences of patients and parents being disempowered to fully understand and contribute to their own, or their children's, care. -
Content ArticleThe gap in healthy life expectancy is being driven by the increasing numbers of people managing a long-term condition (LTC) and, increasingly more than one – known as multi-morbidity. This situation affects a higher proportion of the population facing systemic discrimination and marginalisation, and those experiencing higher levels of deprivation. This report from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy raises awareness of health inequities in rehabilitation and recovery services across the UK
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Content Article
AvMA case study: Stuart's story
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Risk management and legal issues
This article tells the story of Stuart, who died as a result of medication errors while recovering from surgery at a private hospital in January 2013. Stuart had dystonia, an incurable condition that he managed by taking a careful balance of three medications. Following surgery to remove his larynx, the private neurological centre where he was staying ran out of clonazepam, a medication Stuart needed to control his dystonia. Stuart became very unwell, but instead of seeking advice from a doctor, the nurses treated his symptoms as a UTI. on 26 December he was found unresponsive in bed and rushed to ICU at a local hospital. but died a few weeks later from sever kidney and muscle damage. An inquest into Stuart's death found that the lack of clonazepam had caused an increase in Stuart’s muscle spasms, eventually leading to severe muscle and kidney damage. He then developed bronchopneumonia, which was the final factor in his death. -
Content ArticleSepsis is the leading killer of infants and children worldwide and kills more than 250,000 Americans each year. On 1 April 2012, 12-year-old Rory Staunton died from sepsis after grazing his arm while playing basketball at school. This account by Rory's parents Orlaith and Ciaran Staunton describes the multiple errors by the school and different healthcare professionals that led to their son's death - from the wound not being cleaned by the school, to Rory's paediatrician missing key sepsis warning signs and the ER's failure to read Rory's blood test results that showed he was seriously ill. The article also includes a link to a short video where Orlaith and Ciaran describe what happened to Rory.
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Content ArticleThe opioid epidemic is a major public health concern in the US—according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70,630 people died from drug overdoses and 10.1 million people misused opioid prescriptions in 2019 alone. There are also an estimated 180,000 serious opioid-related adverse events in inpatient settings recorded annually. This blog by Dr Diane Perez, advisory board member at the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, looks at how patients and their families can get involved in solving the opioid epidemic. Opioids are potent pain relievers so it is critical that anyone that has a prescription be properly informed about the potential risks–both in and out of the hospital setting.
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Content ArticleAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), medication harm accounts for 50% of the overall preventable harm in medical care. As well as telling the story of Melissa Sheldrick, who has been campaigning to improve medication safety since her son Andrew died as a result of a medication error, this blog looks at how making it 'safe-to-say' can reduce the risk of medication errors. Healthcare systems need a culture shift that makes it safe-to-say when something has gone wrong, is going wrong, or could go wrong. The authors argue that it is only when errors are appropriately managed, reported, responded to and learned from that we can improve the system as a whole, support people impacted to heal and take informed action to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
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Content ArticleThis document outlines the terms of reference for the independent review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), commissioned by NHS England and led by Donna Ockenden. The review has been established in light of significant concerns raised about the quality and safety of maternity services at NUH, and concerns voiced by local families. It replaces a previous regionally-led review after some families expressed concerns and made representations to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The review began on 1 September 2022 following early engagement with families and NUH from June 2022. It is expected to last 18 months, although this timeframe is subject to review. Learning and recommendations will be shared with NUH as they become apparent, to allow rapid action to improve the safety of maternity care. The only and final report is expected to be published and presented to NUH and NHS England around March 2024.
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Content Article
This year, the World Health Organisation’s annual World Patient Safety Day on 17 September 2022 will focus on medication safety, promoting safe medication practices to prevent medication errors and reducing medication-related harm. Patient Safety Learning has pulled together some useful resources from the hub about different aspects of medication safety. Here we list seven tools and articles related to patient engagement and medication safety, including an interview with a patient advocate campaigning for transparency in medicines regulation, a blog outlining family concerns around prescribing and consent, and a number of projects that aim to enhance patient involvement in using medications safely.
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