“Allowing families such as mine to share their experience, makes it possible for parents and hospital workers to connect on a human level. It creates the right space to grow and learn from, as well as hearing, seeing, and understanding the other party. I am grateful for the opportunity I got to share our story.”
An introduction to the philosophy of FCC, its origin and relationship to RMHC & uniting key stakeholders from different backgrounds.
The first Family-Centered Care conference, held at Avila Beach Hotel on Curaçao, for Curaçao, The Caribbean and Latin America brought together different key stakeholders and served as a starting point for FCC on our island and far beyond.
The focal point of this very first conference was to introduce the philosophy of FCC, its origin and relationship to RMHC. Professionals from different backgrounds—from medical to administrative—who actively provide support were brought together, and the experiences of families who lived through these unfortunate situations were shared.
The program was divided into a morning and afternoon program. The morning sessions were geared towards medical specialists, nurses, insurance partners and other professionals in the field. The afternoon sessions were focused around the families of sick children. In order to open a conversation, parents of patients were asked to share and relive their experience allowing (medical) professionals to learn from.
“We need to create an environment for patients/parents to express themselves more. This allows us, professionals, to be more empathetic and stand in their shoes more often. Parents go through a roller coaster of emotions when their child is admitted to the hospital and while this is unavoidable, we can prevent the increase of emotional distress by e.g using simple language instead of too many medical terms. As a pediatrician working with patients every day, I did not realize many things until RMHC invited parents to share their testimony of distress they have experienced in several circumstances.”
After movie | Family-Centered Care in Curaçao
