A unit at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital has taken a unique approach to getting families more involved in patient care and improving the overall care experience: the Family Involvement Menu.
Rhonda Wyskiel, patient safety innovation coordinator for the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, outlined how the menu came to be in a recent blog post. While her mother was in the hospital years ago, Ms. Wyskiel felt "helpless" just sitting there. "One of the first things I noticed was that her lips were chapped. As I moved to apply lip balm, a perturbed nurse told me that such care was off limits," she wrote.
The Family Involvement Menu is the result of her experience there. The menu includes a list of patient care options family members can choose from to help them feel less helpless. There are 13 options in total, including:
- Oral care
- Assist with feeding
- Shave
- Pillow repositioning
- Assist with ambulation
Care givers on the unit provide training to the family members if any is needed to complete the task.
As Ms. Wyskiel noted in her blog post, the menu not only allows families to get more engaged in care, it can also contribute to improved quality.
Click here to read the blog post in full, including lessons learned at Johns Hopkins in implementing the menu.