Intensive Care Unit Patient and Family Handbook & Website Revision

Can you help us create patient and family information tools (handbook & website) that are truly helpful for families when their loved one is unexpectedly admitted to the intensive care unit?

Open to: Volunteers near St. Paul’s Hospital

Lead Organization or Department

Providence Health Care, St. Paul’s Hospital ICU

Aim

This project will update the current patient and family intensive care unit (ICU) information handbook & website. These resources offer useful information and are meaningful tools to support family members of ICU patients.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of involve on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org).  The promise to you is that the health care partner will work with you to ensure that your ideas and concerns are reflected in recommendations and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility

• A family member of someone who has been admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) would be ideal. This includes family members of patients who have been admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital or another hospital’s critical care units such as an ICU, Cardiac Care Unit (CCU), Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU), Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit (CSICU) or a High Acuity Unit (HAU).
• Comfortable sharing your experiences as a family member.
• Fluent in English and comfortable using computers and accessing websites.
• Patients should have previously attended a PVN orientation session and signed the Volunteer Agreement. If you have not attended an orientation but are interested, please contact the engagement leader directly to see if accommodations may be possible.

Logistics

• Vacancies: 2
• Minimum of 2 to 3 meetings. The first one (60-90 minutes) is to share your story as a family member of an ICU patient. Subsequent meetings will be to review the handbook and website content drafts.
• Two Langara Nursing students working in collaboration with the ICU team will be responsible for producing and revising the resources as part of their 4th year coursework from January 4 to March 29, 2017.

Reimbursement

Expenses related to travel (i.e. transit, parking up to $18/day, approved mileage as per the PHC policy which, for mileage, is up to 60km each way at $0.52/km) to attend sessions will be reimbursed by Providence Health Care.

Background

The current patient and family ICU handbook was written more than 10 years ago. The patient and family section of the ICU website has been based upon the current handbook. Both were written from the perspective of the ICU team outlining the policies and guidelines we wish patients and families to follow and provides the information they think they want. Despite these shortcomings, patients and families have found elements of the ICU handbook useful over the years, but it is not grounded in patient and family centred core values. Patient partners will review the handbook and website and offer suggestions for improvement, as well as help identify additional information and therapeutic needs for family members. They will meet with the ICU team to describe the experience of having a loved one in the ICU and identify information that would be beneficial to families, as well as review the current materials, providing feedback for revision. Volunteers will also be provided an opportunity to review the revised drafts before the tools are published.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Karen Estrin
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Lower Mainland & Sunshine Coast
604.668.8245
kestrin@bcpsqc.ca