Family Centered Rounds

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been exposed to the art of “family centered rounding.” Many pediatric hospitals around the country are incorporating this approach of diagnosis and treatment into their daily routines, and it seems to be a hit from both the patient and physician perspectives.

The cornerstone of family centered rounds place emphasis on working with each patient and their family rather than for them. So here’s an example:

I’ll lead the treatment team (students, residents, nurses, attending) into the room, introduce the attending to the patient and family members, and then have a seat with the family.

Using plain language, I’ll discuss what brought the patient into the hospital, give a brief hospital course with relevant findings and labs/images, and discuss our goals for discharge from the hospital as well as our plan to get there (starting continuous Elecare feeds, continuing clindamycin, etc.) Patients and their families/friends are encouraged to contribute additional details and bring up any concerns during this visit; often times, they fill in gaps we were unaware of. This is in stark contrast to more traditional rounds where we enter, tell the patient what they’re going to receive (dialysis today, discharge tomorrow), and leave answering one or two questions as we’re halfway out the door.

Additionally, given that our inpatient service’s patient census was pretty low, the residents and attending would take time to provide students with great teaching points. I learned a lot about bronchiolitis, asthma, abdominal pain, vasculitides, genetics, and the business/social aspects of healthcare.

Now that two weeks of inpatient pediatrics are over, I’m sprinting down the home stretch with two weeks at an outpatient clinic fifteen minutes from home. Unfortunately, the big-bad-pediatrics-shelf patiently awaits me. Gotta find some motivation now.

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