RMHC Curacao | 3rd Family-Centered Care Conference

“Initially I saw this conference as a great opportunity for closure while being guided through a process and chronologically recapping our experience. However, I rapidly realized that a learning moment is for everyone, not just for me. While each and every situation is different, I wanted to share my story with others—parents and the conference audience—to learn from. It might be impossible to prepare for a situation like this, but I hope that these insights can be used in preparation for or at the time of a similar event.”

Hester Versleyen, Parent from St. Maarten, Head Medical Staff Bureau at St. Maarten Medical Center

Emerging stronger after the COVID-19 pandemic

The global and local impacts of the pandemic on FCC, changing circumstances leading to restricted visiting hours, and the impact on the department staff and parents.

The impact of the pandemic continues to be highlighted, while we slowly open the conversation on how to emerge stronger after the pandemic.

As a consequence of the pandemic, healthcare systems globally acted swiftly to put in place measures to restrict the viral spread of SARS-CoV-2. This impact, although often solely highlighted, was not limited to adult care only. By 2021 most hospitals have restricted parental access to babies and children.

During our second conference, we highlighted some of the consequences and impact of the pandemic in our hospital’s NICU and successfully opened dialogue for family involvement and extended visitation hours.

Twenty months later, even though we are still very much living with this terrible virus and its prevalence now also in our children. On November 20th, 2021 we were ready to talk about how we emerged stronger from Covid-19.

Conference Information

Conference date: November 2o, 2021
Hybrid (virtual & live-streamed) Conference

Highlights summarized

Opened a dialogue for family involvement and extended visitation hours,
Hospital staff and families are all impacted by Covid-19 restrictions,
A very powerful parent testimonial showcased the consequences of the lack of FCC principles implementation in times of COVID-19.

Participants

Audience

Pediatricians
Specialists
Hospital Management Outbreak Team
Pediatric Nurses
Psychologists
Grief counselors

Key learnings & direct impact

Grief recovery tools well received on a personal and professional level,
Clear commitments were developed by the pediatric team and communicated with the whole hospital after the conference,
Periodic pre-conference meetings and presentations were conceived as positive, valuable and effective for the hospital,
Family-Centered Research project on FCC in partnership between the USA, the Netherlands and Curaçao will be initiated.

“What I’ve learned as a result of these conferences is that communication with parents is essential, especially when we want to hear and learn from their needs. A medical success story for professionals can still be a failure if parents end up being stressed or traumatized. Don’t just talk, but more importantly: listen to the parents and hear what they say. We also need to evolve continuously and in order to do so we have to take action now!”

Shirley Lo-A-Njoe, Pediatric cardiologist at Curaçao Medical Center