here's to celebrating the birth of every baby...

I am extremely proud to have my name on the byline on the feature article in CLPNA’s Care Magazine.  Click here for the online edition.

It was an honour to spend two days shadowing Ashley Schwanke, the nurse featured in the piece.  She works at Streetworks, which is a needle exchange program at Boyle Street Community Services in Edmonton’s inner city.

Ashley and Dallas even snagged the cover shot – congratulations!

I love doing freelance writing and photography for this reason:  I always am humbled by the health professionals I meet who are doing extraordinary work – both caring for others and trying to make change in the world.  My hope with this article?  People will read it and realize that people are people first…no matter if they live with addictions or in the inner city…and all people are worthy of respect and dignity.

me petting marly, the kangaroo

I’m thrilled I have had an article published based on my Consumers Reforming Health Conference presentation in Melbourne last July.

The article, called ‘Meaningful Engagement or Tokenism’ was published in the Journal of the Health Issues Centre.

Click on the link here! Sue Robins article-HIJ 107

I took the VIA train to Toronto from London, and checked in at my downtown hotel.  When I opened the curtains, the twinkling lights of Toronto were 42 floors below.  I thought to myself:  ‘Dorothy/Sue, you aren’t in Kansas/Edmonton anymore’.

The NICU Family Care Committee at SickKids Hospital brought me to Toronto for two days of workshops and presentations.  I had an exhilarating experience with a group of passionate staff, physicians and families who are dedicated to advancing the practice of family centred care.

Janis Purdy and Kim Dionne, the co-chairs, were my hosts and organizers.  Their vision and leadership was clear early on in my planning phone calls with them.   I was grateful to Lucy Costanzo for handling all my logistics, and Nurse Manager Audra Jesso for her support.  The participants included Kate Robson, Family Coordinator from Sunnybrook NICU.  It was great to see such a diverse audience – a clear sign of collaboration between departments and hospitals in Toronto.

I developed a two-hour Peer Support workshop for the NICU group.  It walked through Embedding Peer Support in a hospital environment, and I presented this Family Centred Care Framework for Managing Change.

The stars in the diagram represent the realities:  ‘You are in a bureaucracy’ and ‘People are resistant to change’ (even good change).

I read a powerful passage from Jennifer Graf Groneberg’s story, ‘First Words’ from the book called Gifts: Mothers reflect on how children with Down syndrome enrich their lives’, and we had lively dialogue about who are the Peer Support champions?  Who are the stakeholders?  How to create opportunities to talk to each other…and other important questions that need to be answered when introducing a new idea into the hospital environment.

Kim gave me a tour of the NICU, and I was taken with the generous space that is allotted to family areas – a big waiting room, a locker room, and three private breastfeeding rooms.  I also had a tour of SickKids Hospital, conducted by the extraordinary Nelson Paiva.  I loved their ‘Play Park’ that is a drop-in space for siblings to play while their brothers or sisters are visiting hospital clinics or staying in the hospital.

I also presented about Sharing the News:  Disclosing Diagnosis to Chief Medical Rounds – Neonatologists, Fellows, Residents and students.  I felt fortunate to co-present the Sharing the News presentation with Dr. Jonathan Hellmann – his wise and thoughtful perspective as a Neonatologist was invaluable during the session.    He generously shared many copies of the beautiful book:  It Was Midnight on the Ocean – the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Book of Rhymes and Stories that I will pass onto the Stollery NICUs.

My main message?  The birth of every baby deserves to be celebrated.  Please say congratulations to all the families you meet.

The SickKids Family Centred Care Council booked me for a ninety minute presentation about ‘Engaging Family Advisors’, where I shared the Stollery Children’s Hospital Network model and the power of family storytelling.  Thank you to co-chairs Jonathan Blumberg and Barbara Muskat and senior leader Karima Karmali for coordinating that session.  Jonathan gets credit for the clever title in this post.  He thanked me for bringing some Kansas to SickKids.

I felt so energized leaving Toronto, knowing that the biggest children’s hospital in the country is so dedicated to the vision of family centred care for their families, children and youth.

Thank you for being such warm and generous hosts, and for being so open to new ideas and perspectives.

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

Shawn Hillhouse and Sue Robins at Stollery's Family Centred Care Strategy Day

One of my deliverables of my Family Centred Care Consultant contract at the Stollery Children’s Hospital is the delivery of a Family Centred Care Strategy Document and three year Road Map.

The talented Ann Goldblatt facilitated the day on November 15.  Her process was very collaborative, and as you can see from the photo, the day also involved storytelling, enthusiasm and fun.

Strategy is so crucial.  The key is to marry a smart strategy with deliverables so great ideas turn into action.

As Wayne Gretzky said:

“You don’t skate to where the puck is;  you skate to where it is going to be.” 

my son with the cbc cameraman, rick

Sometimes I speak with my ‘mom’ hat on to the media about ethical questions associated with reproductive technologies.  This is not an easy topic, and I strive to be fair, respectful and balanced.

On Tuesday, CBC came to our house to interview and film our family for a story about a new prenatal test for Down syndrome.  Here’s the clip below.  You’ll see a day of sweating and ten minutes of interview translated into ten seconds of speaking!  But that’s the nature of television.  I especially love the footage of our son Aaron playing basketball on the driveway. Here’s the clip.

at the royal roads university library

This past January, I realized I had not been to formal school for 20 years.  I’ve taken loads of workshops and seminars, but not actually enrolled in school since my health care administration certificate at University of Saskatchewan in 1991.  That was an awfully long time ago.

I began the Royal Roads University’s Professional Communication Management Graduate Certificate program.   My work experience is exclusively in health care, so I thought I’d stretch myself and surround myself with others from other industries.

“The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.” ~Norman Vincent Peale

cath crock and me on brighton beach, melbourne

I’m freshly back from two weeks in Australia – the first three days were spent at Melbourne’s Consumers Reforming Health Conference, hosted by the Health Issues Centre.  I spoke about ‘Family Engagement in the Pediatric Health System – Meaningful or Tokenism?’.

I was hosted by the lovely Cath Crock, Executive Director of the Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care, and had the good fortune to spend time with Susan Biggar, Samantha Chandler and Evelyn Douglas from the Institute, as well as Susan Frampton, President of Planetree, and Jocelyn Cornwell of the King’s Trust in the UK.

It was a delightful international experience.  I learned that the world is smaller than we might think (despite 30 hour travel days) and staff engagement is just as important as patient involvement in the world of patient and family centred care.

Email me at sue@birdcommunications.ca if you’d care to hear more Australian lessons learned…

Bird communications specializes in family centred care consulting, speaking and writing in the world of health care.

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