lable at ScienceDirect

Journal of Neonatal Nursing 24 (2018) 4e7

Contents lists avai

Journal of Neonatal Nursing

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/jneo

Foreword to the special edition on family integrated neonatal care

In this special edition we aim to provide guidance on how toimplement Family Integrated Care (FIC) in neonatal units. This isa pathway the multidisciplinary team (MDT) developed severalyears ago, and we hope that sharing this material more widelycan help many units achieve a change towards this new model ofcare in which we strongly believe.

The Neonatal Team at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trusthold a shared vision and is strongly committed to provide excellent,family centred, caring and compassionate care for our prematureand term babies and families. The Imperial Neonatal Service spe-cialises in caring for extremely premature babies with 900 admis-sions and 300 babies born <30 weeks gestation in 2016. TheNeonatal Units' ethos has always strongly supported parentinvolvement and delivered high quality family centred care. Wehave awell-establishedMDTconsisting of dietitian, speech and lan-guage therapist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, pharma-cist, discharge co-ordinator and clinical psychologist with regularMDT ward rounds and parent support groups. We are home tothe UK's oldest humanmilk bank and have nursery nurses qualifiedas lactation consultants. This support for mothers results in abovenational average breastfeeding rates at discharge. Parents can bewith their babies 24 hours a day and we encourage them to beinvolved in their baby's care and attend ward rounds. We haveparent rooms and kitchen facilities.

The team was inspired to be a pioneer in piloting Family Inte-grated Care in the UK as a Quality Improvement (QI) project, in or-der to further develop this model of care. On-going collaborationwas established with the Mount Sinai Hospital team led by ProfShoo Lee and Dr Karel O'Brien, who kindly have written the edito-rial for this special edition. Our service was the first in the UK toimplement Family Integrated Care in a Neonatal Intensive CareUnit.

The overall aim of our project is to improve the parent experi-ence and parent-infant bonding, parental mental health, infanthealth outcomes in line with international evidence around FICmodels and the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM)clinical strategy.

A PDSA cycle (Langley 1996) was created to demonstrate themodel for improvement. This quality improvement programmewas funded by Imperial Health Charity.

The IFDC teamThe IFDC core groupwas established in 2014 and the project was

fully implemented in April 2017 with the development of highquality experience co-designed supporting material including aparent supporting mobile App and parent competency basedtraining programme. This material was shared with other neonatalunits and national organisations such as Bliss and the LondonNeonatal Operational Delivery Network.

Fig. 1. PDSA cycle.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2017.11.0021355-1841/© 2017 Neonatal Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights res

erved.

Dr Aniko Deierl, Project Lead“I am a Consultant Neonatologist at Impe-

rial College NHS Healthcare Trust since 2012.I completed my training in Paediatrics andNeonatology and was awarded a PhD in neu-roprotection in Hungary, at Semmelweis Uni-versity. I have worked at Imperial for manyyears and continued to show interest inneonatal neuroprotection studies workingwith Professor Denis Azzopardi. In the lastyears, I completed an MsC in healthcare lead-ership and changed my interest towards

S. Godambe et al. / Journal of Neonatal Nursing 24 (2018) 4e7 5

quality improvement methods. I am leading on the IFDC Project forImperial Neonatal Services, and this project was my dream for thelast 3 years. We worked hard with our excellent multidisciplinaryteam to make it real just as we imagined”.

Dr Jayanta Banerjee, Project Co-Lead“I am a Consultant Neonatologist at Im-

perial College NHS Healthcare Trust since2014. I completed my graduation from Cal-cutta Medical College in India and did mostof my neonatal training in the UK. Myresearch interest includes neonatal haemo-dynamics and oxygenation, and wasawarded with an MD in this field.

I am innovative and have been involvedin service development projects within

NHS.My aim is to pioneer family delivered care at the Imperial Col-

lege hospitals and strongly believe this to be standard of care inthe UK within the next few years”.

Annie Aloysius“I have worked in neonatal care at Imperial

College NHSHealthcare Trust for over 20 yearsas a Speech and Language Therapist and Lacta-tion Consultant (IBCLC), working to supportsick and preterm babies and their familieswith feeding and early communication. Myassociated work with UNICEF UK BabyFriendly Initiative, Bliss, Best Beginnings-Small Wonders and Birthlink UK charities

have consolidated my belief that it is only through partnershipwith parents that we can achieve the best neonatal outcomes.Withmy colleagues, I am leading on the IFDC Project from the Ther-apist's side. I worked on material on lactation, journey to suck feedand many other chapters for the App”.

Karen Platonos“I qualified as neonatal

nursery nurse in 1981 andgained qualification as alactation consultant in2010. I have worked in alevel 3 neonatal unit at Im-perial College HealthcareNHS Trust for more than20 years, supportingbreastfeeding and earlyexpressing. I have greatenthusiasm of supportingparents in transition to

home and breastfeeding, and working very closely with many ofour families. I worked on material on lactation, journey to suckfeed and routine care for the App”. Karen is now our IFDC coordi-nator at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital.

Beverely Hicks“I am an Occupational Therapist who

have worked with preterm infants for thepast 11 years. As an OT I help to adapt theenvironment and individualise care to sup-port each infant's sensory, social and motordevelopment. My specialist area of interestis supporting babies through stressful andpainful procedures. I worked on materialon developmental care for the App”.

Stephanie Clarkand Caroline King

“We are Neonataland Paediatric Dieti-tians at Imperial Col-lege NHS HealthcareTrust, specialising inthe nutrition of pre-term babies. Wemonitor and adviseon our babies’ nutri-tion and growth

throughout their journey on the neonatal unit from birth throughto discharge. We keep in contact with our families post-dischargein the community and provide advice and growth monitoring asrequired. We work closely with the wider neonatal team, particu-larly with the multidisciplinary therapists and the discharge coor-dinators. We have been involved in the IFDC Project, working onmaterial for the nutrition and growth chapters for the App”.

Maryam Kharusi and Robyn Winter“We as Discharge and Liaison team cover both Imperial Neonatal

Units.Wework in partnershipwith neonatal staff, allied health pro-fessionals, other hospitals and community agencies, as we supportthe discharge process and facilitate a smooth and timely dischargehome for vulnerable, high-risk babies and their families providingcontinuing care in the community. We co-ordinate discharges forbabies with more complex needs, such as home oxygen or nasogas-tric tube feeding. We worked on material on discharge planning forthe App”.

S. Godambe et al. / Journal of Neonatal Nursing 24 (2018) 4e76

Rosie Hurlstonand BeckyArmstrong

“We as ClinicalPsychology teamcover both ImperialNeonatal Units. Wework in partnershipwith parents,neonatal staff, and

allied health professionals. We have been involved in the IFDC Proj-ect, working on few chapters for the App”.

Sophie Williams“I work as an Assistant Psychologist on

the Imperial neonatal units, workingalongside the multidisciplinary team topsychologically support families and ba-bies in their journey, as well as contrib-uting to the evaluation andimplementation of the IFDC project. Ihave experience in supporting parent-child relationships and developmentacross the lifespan in a variety of parent

and child mental health services, and I am pleased to be a part ofa project which empowers parents to be involved in their baby'scare in these early, and often extremely challenging few weeks”.

Ines Silva“I am a Neonatal Nurse that has worked in

both medical and surgical neonatal units withover 10 year experience. Apart from patientcare clinical skills, and staff education, I havespecial interest in quality improvement. I sup-port the development of a working culture inwhich learning is encouraged, health care pro-fessionals work together and individuals arevalued. Working in close partnership withthe families was always part of my care philos-

ophy, supporting them along their journey in the neonatal unit bypromoting independence and helping them to build confidence”.Ines is now our IFDC coordinator at St Marys Hospital.

Marianna Loizia“I am a PA in the Neonatal Service at Impe-

rial College NHS Healthcare Trust, providingadministrative support for the Neonatal Con-sultants and also the IFDC Project. I haveworked at Imperial for many years and amvery excited to be involved in a project that in-volves and empowers the parents in theirbaby's care from an early stage”.

Dr Sunit Godambe, Head of Specialty2012e17

“I am working as a Consultant Neonatolo-gist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trustsince 2005. I took over as the Head of Spe-cialty for the Imperial Neonatal Servicesfrom 2012 to 2017. The IFDC Project is a Stra-tegic project for Imperial Neonatal Serviceandwill pave theway to a very humanemodelof care for our tiny babies looked after on bothof the Imperial neonatal units. I hope we can

roll it out as a standard care model for all our babies over thenext few years”.

Dr Lidia Tyszczuk, Head of Specialty 2017“I have been a Consultant Neonatologist at

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust since2003. I am the Lead Clinician for the NorthWest London Neonatal Network and currentlythe Head of Specialty for the ImperialNeonatal Service. The IFDC Project has alreadyhad an impact on the quality of care providedto babies and families. I am committed to sup-porting this model of care in the NWLNeonatal Network”.

Martina Dinneen, Executive SponsorMartina Dinneen the Divisional Director of

Operation for Women's and Children at Impe-rial College Healthcare NHS. Our teamapproached her during the initial planningphase of this project. As an executive sponsorshe supported this project from securing fund-ing to completion.

Other members of the Neonatal TeamThere are many more names: nurses and

senior nurses, allied health professionals, ju-

nior doctors, consultants, and the psychology team who alsocontributed to this project and provided on-going support.

Veteran parentsOur veteran parents provided an extremely valuable resource in

the creation of this mobile application and project material. Theysent photos and videos, written their journey, read and correctedthe educational chapters and attended our focus group events.We are particularly grateful to: Christina You, Daniela Stablum,Adele Yemm, Sarah Fraser, Senna Quaye, Misty Gale and Angela Kay.

Hannah CatmurI'm a visual and UI designer

with strong UX sensibilities. With8 years of professional experience,I'm well versed in producing workthat satisfies clients and keepsusers happy. I studied at LeedsUniversity and Carleton in Canada,achieving an International degreein Design and Communication.

I mostly work with crazy entre-preneurs, tech-startups and coolestablished companies. I loveworking on great projects frominitial concepts through to finalexecution and IFDC Project hasbeen an absolute pleasure.

Past clients include: Audi,

S. Godambe et al. / Journal of Neonatal Nursing 24 (2018) 4e7 7

Center Parcs, Tesco, Goldman Sachs, News International.

PropellerA small Cardiff development team,

that specialise in cross platform digitaldevelopment, creating applications forMobile and Web.

Offering more than 10 years experi-ence, we have a varied skill set that makesus an ideal partnership to undertake theIFDC App.

We are highly proficient on both sides

of the development ‘track, either it's bringing a design to life viacode, or building complex backend for cross platforms applications.

Past clients include: YMCA, Cardiff University, TAXO’D, SpinningHead Productions, CS Properties.

Imperial Health CharityIan Lush Chief Executive, Imperial Health

CharityImperial Health Charity supports the five

hospitals of the Imperial College HealthcareNHS Trust. We give many grants each year,from a few hundred pounds to help a patient

facing financial hardship to capital support in the millions. Fewgrants, however, have had the immediate and lasting impact ofthe £180,000 we gave to the Integrated Family Delivered Care

project run by our wonderful neonatal team at Queen Charlotte'sand St Mary's Hospitals. Parents of a very premature baby face ahugely challenging and emotionally draining time, and this Projecthas tackled that challenge head on, providing remarkable levels ofsupport, advice and involvement in the care of their babies for allparents e in part thanks to the fact that this was developed in part-nership with parents.

In January 2017 my brother in law and sister in law had twin ba-bies at 28 weeks, born in a hospital in Germany. The medical carewas excellent and the baby girls are both now doing very well,but nonetheless there were many times during their eight weeksin hospital when the parents felt a real sense of isolation and bewil-derment at their situation. Had they been able to access IntegratedFamily Delivered Care along with the app I am sure their situationwould have been made just that bit easier to bear e and that smallbut significant reduction in stress for parents of these tiny, vulner-able babies is the reason why we are so proud to have supportedthis project.

Sunit Godambe, Aniko Deierl, Jayanta Banerjee, Annie Aloysius,Karen Platonos, Lidia Tyszczuk

Imperial Neonatal Units, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust,London

Available online 6 December 2017