Family Care

An effective way of implementing new NHS initiatives into improved clinical practice, Integrated Care Pathways (ICPs) concentrate on patient-centred multidisciplinary care. Sue Middleton and Adrian Roberts explain how to use ICPs to deliver appropriate patient care in a team environment without compromising clinical freedom, as well as describing the relationship between ICPs and Clinical Governance. The introduction of Clinical Governance has led to increased interest in ICPs as the tool by which nationally defined guidelines and standards can be made locally applicable, leading to continuous quality improvement. Whilst research about the impact of ICPs is thin, there is increasing evidence from audit and evaluation in Trusts that ICPs lead to real improvements in standards and outcomes for patients.

• Explains the concept of care pathways – from initial idea through to working model
• Focuses on the use of Integrated Care Pathways to facilitate multidisciplinary involvement in patient care
• Highlights potential pitfalls and advises on how to overcome them to ensure successful operation of care pathways

The experts agree: Understanding Teamwork in Health Care is a true must-read

A Doody’s Core Title for 2017!

“This is a much-needed addition to the training curriculum of anyone involved in the healthcare industry.” — James Townsend, DHSc., MBA, MIS (A. T. Still University) and Doody’s Review Service

“Our health care can be magnificently effective, but, without constant coordination and cooperation, its technologies and specialization can be the front doors to confusing complexity and risky fragmentation. Better teamwork improves every aspect of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s ‘Triple Aim’–patients’ experience of health care, the health of our populations,and the cost of providing care. In this book, Dr. Mosser and Professor Begun have given us a superb guide for better teamwork. Their account is based on sound evidence and compelling concepts, but it is also eminently practical. Nearly 100 stories of teamwork-mostly exemplary,sometimes cautionary-illustrate what it means for patients, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and others to work together in effective harmony.” — Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow,Institute for Healthcare Improvement

“Best health outcomes are often the result of an extremely competent, completely connected team of caregivers, working with an empowered patient who is the absolute central focus and sometimes the team quarterback. Drs. Mosser and Begun grasp the critical importance ofhealthcare team members working as equals despite titles or disciplines of practice. This is an engaging, enlightening, entertaining must-read for clinicians currently working in the field of health care, those considering the profession, people teaching potential caregivers, and anyone interested in the future of how we can deliver best health care at lowest cost throughcohesive teams.” — George C. Halvorson, Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Permanente

“Dr. Mosser and Dr. Begun blend clinical vignettes and science in a highly readable book to help us understand the importance and diversity of health care teams. The authors’ conceptual frameworks are intellectually compelling, and their vignettes capture those concepts in action. Members of every type of health care team will find this book to be a valuable resource. Read the first three chapters. You won’t be able to resist the pleasure of reading the rest of the book.” — Linda Cronenwett, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Dean Emeritus, School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“The team-based models developing in progressive health care call for a comprehensive and insightful guidebook. Understanding Teamwork in Health Care meets this need. It provides pharmacists and other health care professionals with the foundational knowledge necessaryto be members of effective clinical teams.” — Joseph DiPiro, Pharm D, Professor and Executive Dean, South Carolina College of Pharmacy

This important guide focuses on the core skills necessary to effectively implement teamwork in a complex hospital or primary care setting. The book’s mission is to make often-overlooked perspectives about teamwork more widely known and used. No matter what your prior level of team involvement may be, this is the one resource that will help you adeptly participate in, lead, or manage teams. Unlike other texts that rely heavily on theory and healthcare policy, this indispensable reference offers a realistic, practical look at the challenges and many opportunities of teamwork.

Reflecting the authors’ 30-plus years of hands-on experience, the text begins with a basic overview of healthcare teams and team members. Subsequent sections highlight how effective teams function; provide expert insights for evaluating and improving healthcare teams; and illuminate the role of senior leadership in advancing teamwork.

Succinct, complete guidance on how to safely and competently care for adult, critically ill patients and their families – written by top clinical experts 
Endorsed by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), this acclaimed textbook sets the standard for critical care nursing education. Recognizing the learner’s need to assimilate foundational knowledge before attempting to master more complex critical care nursing concepts, the book features a practical building-block organization that starts with the basics and logically progresses to advanced topics. 
Bolstered by helpful tables and essential content cases,  AACN Essentials of Critical Care Nursing is an essential tool for clinicians at the point of care, and those preparing for CCRN® certification in critical care nursing.
AACN Essentials of Critical Care Nursing, Fourth Edition is presented in four sections: 
•The Essentials presents core information that new clinicians must understand to provide safe, competent nursing care to all critically ill patients, regardless of their underlying medical diagnoses.•Pathologic Conditions covers pathologic conditions and management strategies commonly encountered among adult critical care patients.•Advanced Concepts in Caring for the Critically Ill Patient moves beyond the essentials and includes information about specific pathologic conditions that require specialized critical care management. •Key Reference Information features normal laboratory and diagnostic values, troubleshooting guides for hemodynamic monitoring, summary tables of critical care drugs, and cardiac rhythms and treatment guides. 
Learning aids include Knowledge Competencies that can be used to gauge progress, Priniciples of Management to summarize key concepts and “Essential Content” case studies with questions and answers to further reinforce the learners’ knowledge. 

* How are the burdens and difficulties of caregiving balanced by the satisfactions experienced?

* How do the demands of caregiving change over time and what are the policy and practice implications of such changes?

* How is a balance achieved between the needs of the caregiver and the cared-for person?

The importance of family (informal) care both in making a reality of community care policies and in helping to sustain the quality of life of people who require support to remain within their homes is beyond doubt. However, whilst a considerable research and practice literature has developed in this area over the last ten years there remains much to learn about caring at both conceptual and practice levels. There is in particular a need to develop more dynamic models which account for the changing nature of care over time and integrates the perspectives of carer, cared-for person and the formal service network.

Based on several years research conducted by the authors, Understanding Family Care integrates a number of theories and perspectives in order to provide a more holistic understanding of the needs of carers. Emphasis is placed on providing a balanced picture which recognizes both the burdens and satisfactions of caring, in addition to the coping efforts that carers employ. A new longitudinal model of caring is described and the various stages and processes are explored. Although the focus is primarily on the carer the perspectives of the cared-for person are not ignored and a model is presented which aids the integration of disparate viewpoints. In addition to theoretical and methodological debates, implications for policy and practice are fully explored.

Understanding Family Care is recommended reading for practitioners and managers in the health and social services, as well as students of social science, nursing, gerontology and social work.

Aimed at students and practitioners involved in supporting such children, and designed to give them an insight into what it means to raise a child with such multiple needs.’

– Current Awareness Service

‘This book draws on the experiences of a number of families to provide a valuable and deeply moving insight into what it means to raise a child with complex needs. It highlights both the joys and the challenges that families face. In doing so it raises important issues about how services in the UK are currently responding to children with complex needs and their families as well as pervasive disablist attitudes within society. This book will provide students and practitioners from a range of disciplines with a valuable window into families’ lives and challenge them to reflect on how they are supporting them.’

– Sue Kirk, University of Manchester, UK.

Focusing on the real life experiences of children and their families, this book provides valuable insight into living with complex and continuing health needs.

The author highlights the importance of seeing each child as an individual, with the same rights and needs as any other person, rather than defining them by their health condition. The book includes case studies to illustrate the experiences of children, parents, siblings and extended families, as well as professionals in health and social care. These personal accounts discuss both the challenges and the rewards associated with looking after a child with complex needs. The author also provides an overview of the support which is available in healthcare and education systems and makes recommendations for the future.

Anyone who is responsible for supporting children with complex and continuing health needs will benefit from reading this book.

• “To those of us who have been aware of the innovative service to families facing death and bereavement that has been developed by David W. Kissane and Sidney Bloch this book has been eagerly awaited. Their work is a logical development in the field of Palliative Care in which it has long been recognized that, when life is threatened, it is the family (which includes the patient) which is, or ought to be, the unit of care.
  The work also has great relevance for the wider field of bereavement care…all who work to help families at times of death and bereavement will find much to learn from this book which represents a useful addition to our understanding of the losses which, sooner or later, we all have to face.” – Colin Murray Parkes

Family members are often intimately involved in the care of dying people and themselves require support through both their experience of palliative care and bereavement. This innovative book describes a comprehensive model of family care and how to go about it – Family Focused Grief Therapy is an approach which is new, preventive, cost effective and with proven benefits to bereaved people. It describes a highly original and creative approach to bereavement care, one likely to revolutionize psychosocial care in oncology, hospice or palliative care and grief work.

The book has been designed rather like a therapy manual, providing a step-by-step approach to assessment and intervention. Its rich illustration through many clinical examples brings the process of therapy alive for the reader, anticipating the common challenges that arise and describing how the therapist might respond. Families are recognised throughout as the central social unit, pivotal to the success of palliative care.

Family Focused Grief Therapy will be of use to doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, pastoral care workers, psychiatrists and other allied health professionals who work in caring for the dying and for their bereaved relatives. Based soundly on a decade of internationally regarded research, this book will alter the direction of future medical practice and is destined to become a classic in its field.

The definitive book on family centred care for health professionals, this popular text has been thoroughly revised in line with contemporary health policy. Including greater emphasis on child-centred care, interprofessional working and care in community settings; it is a valuable resource for all those working with children and families.