The Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department
Sept 2021-July 2022
The Councils at a Glance The Youth Advisory Council (YAC), established in 2015, enhances the delivery of pediatric care by recognizing and addressing the specific needs of our youth population. Now in its seventh year, the YAC is comprised of members ranging in age from 13 to 20. Monthly council meetings, facilitated this term by Morgan Stojanowski, Child Life Specialist, and Nina Connors, Social Worker, empower members to collaborate on a range of patient-care projects and bring actionable recommendations to improve the patient experience. The Family Advisory Council (FAC), established in 2009, works jointly with leadership and interdisciplinary staff to ensure the delivery of the highest standard of comprehensive and compassionate health care. The FAC, facilitated this term by Cheryl Strauss, Child Life Specialist, and Andrea Johnston, Senior Parent Advisor, meets monthly to work on a variety of hospital projects affecting the patient and family experience. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Family Advisory Council, established in 2017, aligns with the patient and family engagement work of the Youth and Family Advisory Councils, providing the parental perspective on initiatives and projects within the NICU setting. The NICU FAC also facilitates regular caregiver events, focusing on the wellness of the caregiver.
Actions Toward Advancing Patient and Family-Centered Care Family Advisory Council • The FAC provided feedback on several pediatric initiatives including electronic meal ordering , the development of a pressure injury prevention safety card, a CT Safety Information sheet for patients and families, and the onboarding of a Patient Service Liaison on P5. • The FAC welcomed physician leaders including Dr. Fernando Ferrer, Dr. Lisa Satlin, Dr. Lindsey Douglas, Dr. Christopher Strothers, Dr. Bradley Delman, and Dr. Peter Morgenstern, as well as nursing leaders Sherri Witkins and Hope Copperstone to council meetings throughout the term. Each leader invited advisors to share their perspectives on hospital wide initiatives in an effort to enhance the patient experience. • Victoria Ellsworth, Associate Director, and Maya Ayoubi, Administrative Manager in Pediatrics, sought the expertise of family advisors in the development of a pediatric Welcome Card intended to help patients and families acclimate to the inpatient setting. NICU Family Advisory Council • The NICU FAC invited Alyssa Gale, the director of health education, to help explore what core ideas and considerations are important in creating an FAC from a parent perspective, as Mount Sinai lays the foundation for creating an advisory council for the GYN/ONC department. • The council advocated and received approval for NICU parents to receive hospital meal vouchers on Mother’s and Father’s Day so they could engage in self-care while visiting their babies on these holidays which can often evoke mixed emotions. Advisors also created cards, wishing parents a day of togetherness and moments of peace. • The NICU FAC created a list of key concepts and values that, as former NICU parents, they believed would be helpful for nurses to know to support parents during a NICU admission. The group then worked to identify examples from their own NICU stays that highlight these concepts to incorporate in a staff training video scheduled for production this fall. Youth Advisory Council • The YAC provided feedback to Jenny Aquaro, Director of Patient Services, Food and Nutrition, regarding the ability to navigate the new electronic food ordering application (CBORD) and the collateral materials promoting this program. • The YAC met with Ellen Black-Kurzrok, Pediatric-Clinical Education Program Manager to give input on a new training program for Patient Care Associates (PCAs) performing blood draws and IV insertions. Advisors highlighted the importance of recognizing patients as partners in care and approaching the bedside with compassion and patience. Mountsinai.org/childlife
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Youth and Parent Advisor Walk the Path to the Operating Room Julia Kostin, youth advisor, and Chantal Onelien, parent advisor, joined Sherri Witkins, Morgan Stojanowski, and Cheryl Strauss in a first of its kind patient and family engagement endeavor. In the hopes of getting a better sense of what patients and families encounter during a trip to the operating room, this cohort walked the full pathway, starting in the waiting room and finishing in the recovery area. Questions were asked and notes were taken as the group made their way through the ambulatory process. Although staff walk these same steps every day, it is vital to understand the experience of our patients and families in order to improve services. Not only did Julia and Chantal share essential feedback for the surgical experience pathway, their participation and insight highlighted the importance of these types of exercises. The Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department, overseeing patient and family engagements within Kravis, is committed to fostering additional opportunities to help support the organization’s growth and development.
Kravis Leads the Way in Bringing Patient and Family Engagement to SPS Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) is a network of 145 children’s hospitals committed to enhancing pediatric care by ensuring safety lessons learned from single organizations benefit all children. All organizations within the network are dedicated to teaching and learning from each other to ensure that no child is harmed under medical care. A vital component of SPS’s effort is focused on bringing patients and families into safety work. SPS recognizes the patient and caregiver as the most critical part of the child’s care team and works to ensure that the family voice is represented across quality and safety initiatives. To enhance patient and family engagement efforts throughout the national network, regional committees have been established to help propel this important work. Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital is pleased to share that our team is leading the New York regional effort. Morgan Stojanowski, Assistant Director of the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department and co-facilitator of Kravis’s Youth Advisory Council, is serving as the current chair. Morgan facilitates monthly meetings attended by hospitals across the New York area, including NYU Langone, Komansky Children’s Hospital, Upstate Golisano, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, and Northwell Health. Agenda items for the 2022 term are focused on the collective successes, challenges, recruitment efforts and programmatic goals of organizations that are integrating patients and families into quality and safety efforts. To date, members have contributed a great deal of information and strategy and have articulated the benefits of coming together as a thoughtful collective with the shared goal of enhancing pediatric care.
Actions Toward Advancing Patient and Family-Centered Care (continued)
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The YAC welcomed Gretchen Greenlee, Certified Child Life Specialist who discussed the Behavioral Health Pilot initiated on P2 in April. This pilot combines the psychosocial expertise of pediatric psychology, child life and social work to develop a cohesive, structured and proactive approach to supporting our most vulnerable patients and families. Goals are to reduce behavioral health emergencies, enhance equitable and supportive care, increase patient and caregiver satisfaction, provide support to medical staff, and improve medical outcomes.
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NICU Parents Connect During Outdoor Pizza Gathering In May 2022, the NICU FAC reintroduced an in-person opportunity for support with “Pizza in the Park.” Warm weather and close proximity to Central Park opened the possibility of resuming these in-person meetings after COVID-19 infection prevention guidelines put the meetings on pause in March 2020. One of the council’s main goals this term was to come up with alternative solutions to help NICU caregivers feel supported and process their NICU experience, while navigating an environment where their ability to interact with others in person was more limited. Adhering to masking and social distancing, NICU parents created “Pizza in the Park” during the NICU change of shift, allowing parents to enjoy dinner and engage in conversation with parent advisors during their time away from their baby’s bedside. Staff has received positive feedback from NICU parents who attended the groups and benefitted from the wisdom and experience of FAC members who have walked the NICU path. The FAC advisors have thoroughly enjoyed being able to meet with parents again to not only provide a listening ear and encouragement, but also to hear about the current hospital experience and generate ideas for the council to work on based on this feedback. Weather permitting, the council intends to provide this monthly offering through October.
Reflections on SPS Spring 2020 National Learning Session By Andrea Johnston, Senior Parent Advisor and Co-facilitator of the FAC In May, alongside Kravis Children’s Hospital nursing, child life and safety and quality staff representatives, I was fortunate to have attended the SPS Spring 2022 National Learning Session as a parent advisor. I feel that my invitation to the conference is a tangible expression of hospital leadership’s genuine commitment to and respect of the essential nature of patient and family engagement, participation and collaboration in the pursuit of ever-improving quality, safe, patient and family-centered care I was most struck by SPS’s invigorated commitment to health equity. The organization is dedicated, through nationwide research, to learn of possible health disparities that exist in correlation to race, ethnicity, and language (REaL). The vulnerable candor with which various conference presenters shared their institution’s discoveries related to health inequities was both humbling and inspiring. The FAC at Kravis works hard to represent and serve the amazing diversity that is the New York City patient and family population but we can always do more, especially when the shared goal of SPS affiliated institutions like Kravis is to do “zero harm” to pediatric patients. The essential and timely work of SPS on REaL data will undoubtedly further energize the safety and quality work within Kravis as well as the work of the advisory councils. Overall, the conference was an opportunity for Kravis participants to celebrate the hospital’s successes in safety and quality as well as to gather information and strategies from other children’s hospitals around the country in order to set next step goals in safety and quality initiatives. I know my fellow advisors agree when I say that the family advisory council looks forward to its continued embedment in this essential work.
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YAC Spotlight Jasmeen Kaur was a founding member of the Youth Advisory Council since 2015. She remained an active council member throughout her college career, and recently graduated this spring. We invited Jasmeen to share what YAC means to her. Please use the QR code to read the full interview. You were one of the founding members of the Youth Advisory Council in 2015. What originally interested you about joining YAC? The most intriguing aspect of Scan to read full interview YAC was that the entire council was founded by patients like myself. I loved this main concept since who understands how to improve the hospital environment better than someone who has stayed there and has the perspective of a patient? You took a leave from YAC when you started college, and returned to the council the following year. What motivated you to return to YAC? The reason why I chose to return to YAC was because I simply missed the interactions and connections I made with everyone. Going into college was definitely a transition period for me and I was still trying to handle multiple responsibilities while also trying to take care of myself and my health. In some ways, YAC provided a safe space for me to openly express how I feel about many of the important topics we address, and I honestly missed being a part of that atmosphere. I also felt as if I was doing something that can help not only others, but myself as well. This was why I planned my academic schedule for my sophomore year, making sure to keep the YAC meeting time open because it provided me true enjoyment. Congratulations on graduating college. How did your experience in YAC contribute to your interest in pursuing a career in medicine? YAC solidified my reasons even more as to why I want to become a physician. Through my years with the YAC, I became a better version of myself and was put in positions where I had to see things from the perspective of a physician. One particularly rewarding experience was observing morning rounds, during which we observed how doctors and their entire staff talked with patients and families. I watched what takes place behind the scenes before a doctor enters a patient's room, and how many different things they have to juggle in order for everything to be in order. This, along with many other experiences I've had with YAC, has shown me medicine from a new perspective. I saw everything I liked and want to improve even more as a physician so that I can give all of my future patients what they deserve!
Patient and Family Engagement Steering Committee Members • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Rafael Acal Jimenez, Director of Nursing, MSH Nina Connors, Pediatric Oncology Social Worker Hope Copperstone, Vice President Nursing MSHS Stephanie Davila, Pediatric Social Worker Lindsay Davis, Senior Child Life Specialist Dr. Lindsey Douglas, Medical Director, Pediatric Hospital Medicine Victoria Ellsworth, Associate Director, Pediatrics Dr. Fernando Ferrer, Chief Operating Officer Brenda Hidalgo, NICU Social Worker Dr. Laura Hodo, Inpatient Quality Director, Pediatric Hospital Medicine Andrea Johnston, Senior Parent Advisor Jennifer Kero, Clinical Program Manager, Pediatric Quality and Safety Jo Murray, Senior Parent Advisor Diane Rode, Senior Director, Patient and Family Centered Care, Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department Regina Sambrani, Vice President Nursing MSH Monica Savoti, Director of Nursing MSH Morgan Stojanowski, Assistant Director, Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department Cheryl Strauss, Senior Child Life Specialist
Hospital Leadership Highlights Strategic Goals Throughout the 2021-2022 FAC/YAC term, the Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital leadership team has demonstrated a deep commitment to including the patient and family voice and perspective in the development of hospital projects and initiatives. In February 2022, executive leaders Dr. Fernando Ferrer, Chief Operating Officer, and Dr. Lisa Satlin, Chair of Pediatrics, participated in a joint meeting of the Youth and Family Advisory Councils which fostered rich, interactive discussions. Both leaders gave informative and transparent presentations highlighting the current state and strategic goals for the children’s hospital at large. A key take away was the strategic emphasis on the creation of an integrated system of care in which pediatric patients and families have ready access to all practitioners and, as a result, an enhanced healthcare experience. Family and youth advisors applauded hospital leadership’s drive to improve the patient experience and utilized smaller breakout rooms to delve further with Drs. Ferrer and Satlin into the initiatives mentioned in their opening presentations. Advisors consistently tout the opportunity to interface with a wide variety of leaders and frontline staff during the course of a council term as a significant point of satisfaction and look forward to continuing these organizational conversations in the upcoming term.