Issue 151 | February 2022
IPFCC Events
Engaging the Expertise of Patient and Family Educators in Medical Education
February 24, 2022 at 1:00 pm ET
Integrating patient and family educators is not new in medical education. It has been done for decades. Unfortunately, it is not a firmly established nor consistent approach. When students learn aboutfrom, and with people who are experts about their own health and health care, they are prepared to promote and support an approach to practice that welcomes all patients and families as full partners in their care.
 
With funding from the New York State Health Foundation, IPFCC led a project focused on developing, testing, and disseminating a comprehensive resource for establishing new patient and family faculty programs in medical education or expanding current ones.
 
Register today for this free webinar to learn about the development and use of this exciting new resource for medical education!
IPFCC At Work
Emerging Best Practices for Preserving the Essence of Family Presence During a Pandemic
Since the beginning of COVID-19, IPFCC has been creating new resources and networking opportunities for the field focused on maintaining patient- and family-centered care and its fundamental partnerships during the pandemic. A key issue we have addressed is family presence. With the advent of the Omicron variant, new restrictions on family presence were introduced. Building on January’s PFCC.Connect Informal Conversation and information gathered from hospitals and organizations, IPFCC developed a new resource, Emerging Best Practices for Preserving the Essence of Family Presence During a Pandemic. The examples in the resource show true commitment to family presence – and creativity in finding safe strategies to support families as essential care partners. Please learn from them, use them in your organization, and continue to share challenges and strategies with IPFCC!
Resources and Opportunities
Supporting Wellness: Findings from a Mixed Methods Investigation

IPFCC's Pam Dardess, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Operations, is a co-author on a new article based on work with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. This project investigated the perspectives and priorities of individuals with depression and/or bipolar disorder when it comes to treatment and goals. Read the article.
Health Affairs - Special Issue on Racism and Health Now Available

The February 2022 issue of Health Affairs explores the topic of racism and health. With an emphasis on aspects of structural racism, the articles are an important read for leaders, policymakers, researchers, clinicians, staff, patients, and families. All articles in this issue are open access and can be found here.
BC Patient Safety & Quality Council - Three New Resources
The BC Patient Safety & Quality Council just released three resources that you may find helpful in your work collaborating with patients and families:
Refocusing COVID Visitation Policies Through a Safety Lens
Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, MPH, CPPS, Chief Safety and Transformation Officer at Press Ganey, was interviewed recently by the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety, about restrictions on family presence during the pandemic. She said, "We have concentrated our attention on the risks of visitation and lost sight of the benefits. When we close our facilities to visitors because we fear a few individuals, many are harmed." For the future, she suggests returning to “the vision of family presence,” strategizing how to do it safely, and collecting data to measure the impact. Read the interview.
Family Presence in Long-Term Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Call to Action for Policy, Practice, and Research

In this call for action, the authors urge that the protection of psychosocial needs of residents, families, and staff must be balanced with infection control in long-term care. They further suggest that emphasis on infection control only “is a short-sighted approach that, over time, will lead to resident, family, and LTC staff harm.
Coronavirus Disease 2019 Policy Restricting Family Presence May Have Delayed End-of-Life Decision for Critically Ill Patients

A research project conducted at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Bayview Medical Center suggest that “restricting family presence may lead to longer ICU stays and delays in decisions to limit treatment prior to death.”  
Pinwheel Sponsors
2022 Pinwheel Sponsorships - Renew or Join Now!
We invite you to become a 2022 Pinwheel Sponsor! Your sponsorship is vital to so many of IPFCC’s initiatives, and it greatly enhances our program development to improve safety, quality, equity, and the care experience.
 
As a non-profit organization, we appreciate our Pinwheel Sponsors’ support of IPFCC in our efforts to advance the practice of patient- and family-centered care and ensure that patients and families are essential partners in all settings across the continuum of care. Our mission is critically important with current challenges, and we hope you will support our work by becoming a Pinwheel Sponsor today. Access and complete the online Pinwheel Sponsor Application.

Special thanks to these 2022 Pinwheel Sponsors:
  • Akron Children's Hospital
  • Augusta University Health
  • Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Children's Mercy Kansas City
  • Children's Specialized Hospital
  • H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
  • Hasbro Children's Hospital
  • IWK Health Centre
  • Luminis Health/Anne Arundel Medical Center
  • MHA Keystone Center
  • Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center 
  • Providence Health Care
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital
  • Stanford Health Care
  • Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
  • University of Miami Health System
  • University of New Mexico Children's Hospital
We look forward to working together in the coming year. If you have questions or thoughts regarding IPFCC program areas, please reach out to Bev at bjohnson@ipfcc.org. For more information about the Pinwheel Sponsors Program, please contact Sherry at shajec@ipfcc.org.