Funding outcome

This research aims to investigate whether providing a structured Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Multidisciplinary Peer Process can improve NICU health care provider (HCP) team functioning and lead to improved patient safety. By structuring our support of NICU health care providers after critical events, this point of care research focuses on the impact of HCP resilience and burnout as it translates to patient safety and care. Current NICU HCP do not have a formalized process to assist in dealing with critical incidents or distressing events which are commonplace when dealing with critical babies and their families. Ineffective support for HCP can lead to poor unit resilience, staff burnout with decreased patient safety priorities, and poor attitude towards neonatal patients and their families which can also affect maternal health. CISM is a structured program for professionals exposed to critical workplace events and used by other first responders. An initial survey will be done by the multidsciplinary staff in high level acuity NICUs at the Stollery Children's Hospital to determine their attitudes towards patient safety and determine the NICU HCP level of resliience or ability to 'bounce back' both prior to and after introducing CISM training and peer support. Multidisciplinary HCP Peers in the NICU would be professionally trained and supported to provide CISM interventions to the NICU HCP team. There is a lack of research describing the impact of introducing CISM into health care settings, especially in neonatal intensive care. This research aims to look beyond the user satisfaction measurements of CISM, and explore the pre and post intervention measures of NICU multidisciplinary HCP resilience and burnout and how it relates to patient safety attitudes. It is hypothesized that CISM implementation will lead to improved staff resilience; and in turn, enhance safety in care for HCP and the babies and families they care for.