A day of family centred care conversations in London, Ontario

sue and friends, post-presentation

I was fortunate to travel to London, Ontario on November 23 to spend a day with London Health Science Centre’s Children’s Hospital staff and families.

I was hosted by Family Centred Care Specialist Lisa Hawthornthwaite and Family Advisor Jennifer Banting in the Children’s Hospital beautiful new building.  The team at Children’s Hospital is embedding a philosophy of family centred care throughout their facility.  This commitment was clear – from their family spaces in the hospital – including a brand new Child and Family Resource Centre on the first floor that provides a bright area for families, children, youth and staff to find reliable health information, to the new hiring of Jennifer as a paid Family Advisor at the hospital.

I had the opportunity to meet Jennifer for breakfast to talk about their new training modules for their expanded peer support program – called Parent Hour.  We also bonded over our experiences being paid family advisors – she’s one of a handful in Canada!

Jennifer gave me a tour of the family space at the hospital, and then I presented on the topic of ‘Meaningful Engagement or Tokenism?’ – a perspective on family engagement in pediatric heath centres.  There were 20 leaders, family reps and staff in the audience, and we moved onto a networking lunch.  I met so many folks passionate about family centred care, and was delighted to break bread with Child Life Specialists, and family reps from their Family Advisory Council.

Then I was invited to attend a Nursing Orientation session, where Lisa and family representative extraordinaire, Ann Hovey, had 90 minutes to present about family centred care.  Ann did a beautiful job of sharing her daughter’s story and journey in the hospital, and provided practical tips for the nurses to build partnerships with families.

A special thank you to Lisa Hawthornthwaite for bringing me to London.  Like me, Lisa is now past chair of the Canadian Family Advisory Network, and she has done an amazing amount of work to advance the practice of family centred care at Children’s Hospital.  The Parent Hours, Child and Family Resource Centre, families presenting to staff, family feedback form, Family Advisory Council and Children and Youth Advisory Council are all testaments to her vision and leadership.

I was especially impressed by her efforts to decentralize family centred care, so staff throughout the hospital work to engage the family voice directly in their areas of practice.  For instance, families are involved in Access and Flow and Patient Safety workshops.

I really believe if all staff take ownership in engaging families, this will embed the philosophy throughout a hospital…

my lovely hosts jennifer banting and lisa hawthornthwaite in the child and family resource centre