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Supporting seriously ill children and their families

Authors: Kirsten Peels, Nadine Molenaar, Zoë Kennedij, Daniek Nolten, Lisanne van der Linden, Naomi van de Pol
Educational institution: The Hague University of Applied Sciences
Client: Villa Expertcare

Issue

The practical problem within Villa ExpertCare is that there is a lack of information about the situation surrounding the family. This is mainly due to the transfer from the hospital. This misses the whole picture. Think of the social network and adapted materials. Furthermore, it is not clearly mapped out what the family can offer itself and the emphasis is mainly on what is not going well and why the child cannot go home.

Research question

How can the current inventory form be expanded to provide a more complete picture of the family's situation?

End product

For this project we worked on a product that would make the transition from the hospital to Villa ExpertCare as smooth as possible. Together with Sabine Riem of Villa ExpertCare, we looked at the bottlenecks within this transition. To share information from the hospital with Villa ExpertCare, there is an inventory form in which roughly the general data of the child, development, medical information and a small piece of family situation are queried. As a group, we came to the conclusion that more depth is possible for mapping the social network and looking at not only hindering, but also facilitating factors in the development of the child and the upbringing by the parents.

“Looking at the possibilities is something we focus on very much" – Sabine Riem, Villa Exper tCare

Advice

We advise Villa ExpertCare to add the created pages to their inventory form so that a good picture of the social network can be made. It is possible to take a good look at what the parents can do themselves and who they can ask for help. You put the parents in their own strength in this way.

In addition, the inventory form contains a heading 'Nursing actions'. We advise Villa ExpertCare to add an extra text box below, so that there is room for parents to say which medical procedures they can perform themselves. Parents can often do more than we think. By starting from this, we empower parents.