Pediatric nurse Mirjam Zeebregts feels like a fish in water in her project, setting up Medical Child Care Cooperation (MKS) in the Amphia hospital in Breda. On 20 April she will talk about it at the MKS Afternoon Symposium 'Their life, our care'.
“Why am I doing this? Good question. As a pediatric nurse, I am at my best when I can put the child first. I wondered a while ago in which setting that passion thrives best. I love acting on acutely ill children in the hospital, especially in the emergency room. But contacts with the child and family are usually fleeting. I now also work outside the hospital for a few hours a week, at Vivre Kinderthuiszorg. I do have that long-term personal contact there. So I am an all-rounder, which is why setting up MKS suits me so well, I think.”
Survival swimming
“Like a fish in water is well expressed. I am indeed into it. Sometimes it is a bit survival swimming, but that suits me. Medical Child Care To me, cooperation means that we all provide the care and support that the child and family need. Attention for all areas of children's life, and not just for the medical aspect. And together we offer continuity of care, both within and outside the hospital. For that you need to know how to find each other.”
“Out of interest, I have followed MKS from the start. At a good moment I said internally: as Amphia we also have to work on this. I felt I had to show my nursing leadership. The MKS vision is in line with ours, I said, a working method has been developed nationally, the professional associations are behind it - we just have to do this. And we as nurses must be in the lead. With that in mind, a subsidy was released in the hospital, which allowed me to set up MKS in Amphia.”
File management
“My goal is to implement the MKS method in our work processes in Amphia. This means, among other things, that we will graft the file management on the four areas of the life of children. Among other things, there must be an ecogram in the file of every child who needs care after the hospital, an overview of the social network. So that we not only know what the family looks like, but also what school the child attends, what sport he is involved in, whether he visits a children's physiotherapist outside the hospital, and so on. Anything relevant.”
“We also have a training sub-project. The focus is on teaching children and parents skills, in which we strive for as much uniformity as possible. But as colleagues we will also make each other aware of the vision behind the MKS method. For example, the ENT doctor who knows little about child care, but sees quite a lot of children at his clinic. In another sub-project we design a clear care path that clearly indicates who is responsible for which task. This is the first step for the care plan that the home care organization draws up.”
Cooperation
“But the most important part is setting up cooperation with home care organizations and other providers of care and support outside the hospital. I want to work towards a warm transfer as standard, and multidisciplinary consultations in which, for example, the home care organization calls in via Teams. I recently tried this and it was a great success. In this way, contact is immediately established, and you can anticipate problems that would otherwise arise in the home situation. I would also like to realize that as a hospital we have a permanent contact person for all external care providers who call the hospital.”
“In this way I do indeed build a bridge between the hospital on the one hand and the care and support outside it on the other. Two worlds that are still very different from each other. Just think: as a pediatric nurse you do not come into contact with the world of medical nurseries, rehabilitation centers, care farms, care for the disabled and the like during your training. The healthcare professionals who work there are your colleagues, they work with the same children as you, but you have no idea what they are doing. That is actually very strange. In that respect, we will really have to visit each other and get to know each other better.”
You have to see it, you have to experience it
“It is very nice to see that more and more colleagues in Amphia are becoming enthusiastic about MKS. Especially if they realize that MKS means that together, inside and outside the hospital, you simply provide the care and support that the child and family need and that suits them. I make sure that my colleagues are given additional tasks by MKS. No one is waiting for that, the working days are already bulging. I involve them where possible. The following applies to MKS: you have to see it, you have to experience it. If you then achieve successes, such as recently with that multidisciplinary consultation, life goes on.”
Care of the future
“I am sure that the MKS method is the concern of the future. Yes, also those of adult care. Read the Integral Care Agreement carefully. This is about efficient patient-oriented care that you organize in networks. Well, MKS. But to get MKS off the ground, it is important that all parties become motivated to pursue this way of working. And that you are sometimes willing to put your own interests aside for that. ”
“Of course it doesn't all happen automatically. There will be resistance and there will be setbacks. It is also not yet clear how the financing flows will run, and that is an important fact in the hospital. But I parked all that, I have faith that it will work out. I am firmly convinced that this method is the best way to organize care, also in terms of costs. I radiate that and I pass it on. As a result, more and more people will appreciate and become enthusiastic about MKS. Also the colleagues who deal with finances.”
By Pieter Hoogestein
Thanks to Judith Evens
Mirjam Zeebregts will speak on Thursday 20 April at the MKS Afternoon Symposium 'Their life, our care'. Not signed up yet? It's still possible! Do it now: https://kindenziekenhuis.nl/symposium-mks/