“One of the features of Paediatric ICU is that it is rich in tragedy and even richer in joy and healing and they often are really quite close together” said A/Prof Felix Oberender Director Paediatric Intensive Care Unit Monash Children’s Hospital at Tuesday’s employee forum when he shared how his team used feedback to improve patient care.
In May 2017, a 20-month-old boy was rushed to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Monash Children’s Hospital where he spent the next five days while our doctors and nursing staff tried desperately to save his life. Despite the best efforts of our team, the boy sadly passed away.
While the family of the boy was incredibly grateful for the work of our doctors and nursing team, they also gave us valuable feedback that there could be improvement in communicating end-of-life care.
“For us as a team it was very confronting to hear that feedback. However, it was very valuable and through that process, we developed a conversation with an amazing family,” said A/Prof Felix Oberender.
The family worked with our PICU team to develop a plan to improve patient communication and family support within PICU.
From these discussions, the family established the charity ‘The Brightest Star’ where they raised funds for our Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to establish The Sexton Scholarship. The scholarship supports programs and training to improve patient care and family support within PICU.
As a result, in 2021 amidst covid the dedicated PICU web resource was created for families – they can access the site simply by scanning the QR code provided in rooms. The site is consumer focused and contains all the information they will need to know, from treatment procedures to cafes and petrol stations nearby – and it has become an invaluable resource for families.
You can watch A/Prof Felix Oberender at our employee forum here: Employee Forum 2023-01-24
Visit https://picu.monashchildrenshospital.org/faqs/ to view the web resource created by the team.
We look forward to sharing some more of the extraordinary efforts of our teams and the feedback we receive at our employee forums throughout the year.
Approved by Louise Kanis and Anjali Dhulia