rnao life transitions
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Facilitating Life Transitions
Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes, PhD, LMHC, CRC, NCC
“Flower (Em)power”
Depicts a comprehensive and perennial approach to treatment.
At the core of the flower is the clinician-family partnership.
The Stem
Sustaining a caring environment represents different interrelated components of promoting family health.
The stem of the flower symbolizes the advocacy activities and policy changes needed to ensure that the clinical activities that support and strengthen families can grow.
The Leaves
The leaves of the flower stand for:
Vision
Values
Principles
The Roots
Symbolize how this best practice model is grounded in the following five axioms:
Responsibility
Resources
Respect
Results
Recognition
Developing a genuine partnership with families
Acknowledging and respecting the important role of family in health care situations
Determining the desired degree of family involvement
Negotiating the roles of both nurse and family within the partnership
Discussion Forum
Think of a time when, working with a family in transition, you developed a genuine partnership with them. How did the partnership begin? How did it grow? How were you affected professionally, and personally, by this?
Please take a moment to share your responses in the discussion forum. Thank you.
Family Assessment
Address all of the following: Family structure
Environmental data
Family strengths
Family supports
Identify resources and supports to assist families
Where?Within the nuclear family
Between families (in laws, distant relatives)
Supports outside the family (i.e. Church, non-related friends)
Sustaining a caring workplace conducive to family-centered practice
Ensuring that staff are oriented to family-centered care, including family assessment
Ensuring that staff have the awareness and ability to effectively access resources
Providing ongoing opportunities for professional development
Supporting family centered practice in the workplace
Ensuring appropriate staffing levels, assignments, and staffing categories
Implementing family-centered practices and policies
Creating and maintaining physical work environments that are conducive to promoting family involvement
Best practice guidelines
Can be successfully implemented only if there are:
Adequate planning
Resources
Organizational and administrative support
Appropriate facilitation
Developing a plan for implementationAn assessment of organizational readiness and barriers to education
Dedication of a qualified individual to provide the support needed for the education and implementation process
Ongoing opportunities for discussion and education to reinforce the importance of best practices
Opportunities for reflection on personal and organizational experience in implementing guidelines
The family
Plays an integral role in promoting and maintaining health of family members, as well as providing physical and emotional support.
Vision for Supporting Families
“In a perfect world ” Families would be supported across the care continuum in a caring, consistent, timely and effective manner.
Families would have access to timely and comprehensive information.
Families would be able to choose from a full range of respite care and support services which would be delivered consistently across Ontario in a flexible, culturally-sensitive, and affordable manner.
Vision for Supporting Families Cont…
Families would be comprehensively supported by nurses and other care providers because resources would be available to allow this to take place.
Families would say their needs were met and they were supported and strengthened through the care experience.
Discussion Forum
Think of your collective experience from supporting families during life transitions. If you could change one aspect of the care and support they received, what would it be? What would you make different for them?
Please share your responses in the discussion forum. Thank you.
Values & principles for supporting and strengthening families
It is important for staff to recognize their own assumptions and values about families and cultural beliefs, and adjust their care accordingly.
Families and family relationships are unique and diverse, and may change over time.
Families have expert knowledge and skills that help them determine their own needs and respond to expected and unexpected life events.
Values & principles for supporting and strengthening families cont…
Partnerships with families are built upon mutual trust, honesty, and collaboration.
Families participate in care only as much as they are able, or want to.
Partnerships increase the likelihood that clinicians will follow a family-centered approach to care.
Support families in their choices.
Family members and the client may have different and conflicting needs.
Clinicians should support family situations.
Family beliefs & values and the clinician-family partnership
The differences in family beliefs and values in families will affect the clinician-family partnership.
Key components of an assessment and intervention framework
Listening to the family
Engaging in a participatory dialogue between the nurse/counselor and family members
Recognizing patterns
Family supports
Examine the types of supports the family requires during the expected or unexpected life event.
Issues that should be assessed include: The family’s appraisal of the stressor
Their concerns and sense of vulnerability
Information needs
Involving families
The most common reason offered by nurses and counselors for not routinely assessing and involving families in their practice is because they don’t have time.
The shortest amount of time required is 15-minutes for a family interview to be purposeful, effective, informative, and even therapeutic for family members.
Key components of a 15-minute family interview
Therapeutic discussions and questions
Identifying who makes up the family unit
Identifying family and individual strengths
Families coping
Nurses and counselors can support families in recognizing their strengths
In times of stress each family copes in a unique way.
Family-Centered Care
Emphasis should be placed on all of the following:
Creating opportunities for families to become more competent and independent
Strengthening families by building on their strengths and natural resources
Enhancing the family’s acquisition of a wide variety of competencies and resources
Supporting family-centered practice in the workplace
Ensuring appropriate staffing levels, assignments, and staffing categories
Implementing family-centered practices and policies
Developing employee assistance programs promoting family health
Key steps in implementing a best-practice
Identify a well-developed, evidence-based clinical practice guideline
Identification, assessment and engagement of stakeholders
Assessment of environmental readiness for guideline implementation
Planning and implementing evaluation
Identifying and securing required resources for implementation
Discussion Forum
One of the key steps in implementing a best-practice is identification, assessment and engagement of stakeholders. Take a moment to think about how you identify stakeholders. How do you assess and engage them?
Please share your thoughts in the discussion forum. Thank you.
Developing an empowering partnership with families
Recognizing the family’s assessment of the situation is essential
Acknowledging and respecting the important role of family in health care situations
Determining the desired degree of family involvement
Supporting interdisciplinary family-centered practice in the workplace
Ensuring appropriate resources (e.g., time, staffing)
Creating and maintaining environments that are conducive to family-centered care
Developing programs that promote work life balance for employees
Conducting a family assessment
The clinician engages in a partnership with the family to assess their perception of and their capacity to address the life event.
Areas to be assessed include Family perceptions of the event(s)
Family structure, composition, values
Home and community
Environmental characteristics
Family strengths
Summary
Using a collaborative and consultative approach, both in the workplace and in treatment, helps clinicians empower families to:
Learn how to assess and meet their needs
Communicate
Take responsibility for their care and treatment