Page 17 - Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Connect Summer 2019

We were named Team of the Year in the national Bliss Neonatal Excellence Awards which is testament to the hard work of the team in improving outcomes for both babies
Transforming care for families in the Neonatal Unit
The baby’s bubble is an invisible barrier around each baby on the neonatal unit and ensures that they are in a safe and clean space. The bubble includes everything in and around the baby’s space
and families in the short and long term.
Following our success, we are now working with other NHS trusts to share our experiences and help to improve neonatal care across the country, and we will also be hosting the third international Family Integrated Care conference here in Leeds.
As a regional centre, the parents of premature babies on our units can live a considerable distance from the hospital. This can be challenging, particularly if their baby arrived unexpectedly early and they need to continue caring for other members of the family. There are also times when we care for twins and one is being cared for at a different hospital.
To enable families to see their baby’s progress we launched vCreate across our units. This web-based application lets nurses record video updates for parents when they are not able to be by their baby’s side so they don’t miss out on any special moments and are reassured that all is well.
Charlotte, mum of baby Noah, said: I’m on the ward from 7 in the morning to 6 in
the evening, but being away from my baby overnight feels like such a long time - so much can happen. With the video messaging, if you miss something, you’re kept informed. It’s a lovely idea, and a really simple yet effective way of staying connected. I get a text alert and an email with a link to the video and I get to see my baby’s little face.
The platform has also helped parents and the wider family unit, such as siblings and grandparents,
to feel more connected to the baby’s progress, because vCreate videos can be accessed at any time, from anywhere and on any device.
It is more difficult for babies on the neonatal
unit to fight infection so we launched the Baby’s
Bubble initiative to encourage parents, visitors and
staff to think more about how they may be bringing infections onto the unit.
including equipment and paperwork.
The scheme encourages parents and visitors to always wash
their hands with soap and water when they enter the ‘bubble’, take outside coats off, and not be afraid to challenge any member of staff who may not have washed or gelled their hands appropriately.
We know that babies who acquire infections have longer stays in hospital so the initiative could enable them to go home sooner, and require fewer courses of antibiotics.
In April we supported the first ever Neonatal Mental Health Awareness Week. Created by Leo’s, a charity dedicated to supporting families and staff through the neonatal journey and beyond, Neonatal Mental Health Awareness Week highlights the long-lasting impacts on the mental health of parents, siblings and grandparents when they have been on a neonatal journey. It also looks at the impact working on a Neonatal Unit can have on staff, highlighting the support that is out there for this group.
Already a leading example of raising awareness of the importance of looking after your mental health, Leeds Children’s Hospital Neonatal teams have launched a number of initiatives to support families and staff on both units.
Fiona Metcalfe, Lead Nurse for Neonatal Surgery added: It’s really important that we raise awareness of mental
health on our neonatal units both for families and for staff. Recent studies suggest that families with children on the unit can often experience mental health worries and often they don’t know where to turn or who to turn to.
In Leeds we have been working to provide support for our families with a number of initiatives that we can only hope to continue to improve which is why we’re supporting Neonatal Mental Health Awareness Week. We have a number of events planned that will hopefully encourage more people to start the conversation and get the support that they need.
CONNECT MAGAZINE - SUMMER 2019 17