Nurse manager at Covenant Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Shannon Bates says it’s always good to talk about patient safety and says it’s something they do regularly.
“All of the leaders throughout the hospital, our nurse managers of every department, all of our support service, as well as administration get together every single morning and we talk about any events that happened in the last 24 hours, what to expect that day and then things that could potentially go wrong that we all need to huddle together and be able to address really quickly,” said Bates.
They’re members of ‘Solutions for Patient Safety,’ where they get together with other children’s hospitals to stay on top of safety.
“They help us get together bundles of a few things that we can do collectively throughout the nation to help prevent any harm done to patients.”
When it comes to what’s best and safest for the child, Bates said they want the families to be involved.
“We want those families at the bedside,” said Bates, “They know their child best.”
That’s why Covenant Children’s has a Family Advisory Council.
“We have a group of parents who’ve been in the hospital before that help guide us and advise us of things that we can do to continually improve the care that we provide for it to be safer for kids,” she said even though the council serves as a voice for parents, they encourage feedback.
“Any concerns that anyone has, because we want to be able to address it for their sake and their child’s sake, as well as for all the future kids that will be coming through the children’s hospital.”
If your child wants to speak up Bates says they welcome that too.
“We want the child to be involved so we also use support services.” Bates explained some of those services include Child Life and music therapy allowing them to get on the child’s developmental level.
