Dr Jez is an Associate Specialist in neonatology working in an NHS hospital. She works in a low dependency unit supervising transitional neonatal care. She also provides neonatal support to the special care baby unit (SCBU).
Her role is focused on inpatient care with the occasional outpatient clinic. Because of the age of her patients, Dr Jez has to ask parents or carers for feedback.
Gathering enough feedback is challenging, due to the low turnover of patients receiving inpatient care. On the postnatal ward, Dr Jez sees approximately two to three patients per day, and on the SCBU, approximately 10 new patients per week.
She finds it challenging to ask parents who have received upsetting news, for feedback.
Dr Jez used a tool developed by the RCPCH specifically for use in intensive care unit (ICU) settings, called the Paediatric Carers of Feedback (PaedCCF) tool. The tool is a feedback form of 17 questions designed for use with parents and carers, but children and young people can complete the questionnaire if they're able to. Respondents are asked to give the doctor a rating of between 1 and 5 and there is also a space for free text comments. Doctors should collect 40 responses to make sure their results are sufficiently valid and reliable.
Dr Jez asked two experienced nurses on the neonatal ward and SCBU to give out feedback forms to parents and carers on her behalf. She let the nurses know when she'd spoken to parents on the ward, or asked them to approach parents they saw her having discussions with, in the SCBU.
The doctor used her professional judgement to decide when and how soon to ask parents who had received upsetting news for feedback, and asked the nursing staff to approach the parents at an appropriate time.
Dr Jez regularly reminded the nurses to hand out the forms, to make sure she received enough responses. Asking for feedback on both the postnatal ward and the SCBU, meant she was able to get enough responses covering her whole practice.
Completed questionnaires were returned to the nurses' station in a sealed envelope with the doctor's name on it. This meant the doctor was not directly involved in the administration process, to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. The questionnaires were then sent to the Royal College for collation and so that a personalised report summarising the feedback and comparing it against a cohort of peers could be produced for the doctor.
Dr Jez was able to reflect on the quantitative and qualitative patient feedback, which gave a boost to her confidence about her patient interactions and reinforced existing good practice.
