Virginia D Boos

Publications (2)1.32 Total impact

• Article: Perceptions of a strategy to prevent and relieve care provider distress in the neonatal intensive care unit.

  Felix A Okah, Dawn M Wolff, Virginia D Boos, Barbara M Haney, Adebayo A Oshodi
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  ABSTRACT: Background A Midwestern neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) employs a multidisciplinary conference, the Comprehensive Care Round (CCR), to facilitate communication and consensus building and thereby prevent or address moral distress within the health care team.Methods A cross-sectional survey, 3 years after implementation of CCR, to evaluate health care providers' (HCP) perceptions of comfort with expressing distress, support from team members in care situations that evoke moral distress, barriers to communication, and attainment of CCR objectives.Results Of 370 HCP, 116 (31%) participated in the survey (42% nurses, 37% allied health, and 21% medical); 51% had previously attended CCR. CCR attendance was higher among HCP aged >35 years, those who cared for CCR patients, and nonnurses. Neonatologist were more likely than others (44% versus 4%, p <0.01) to report that referred cases were not overdue for discussion and that families appreciated the attention their child received from CCR. Of note, HCP who were comfortable with expressing distress also felt supported by team members (R = 0.5, p <0.001).Conclusion CCR, developed to prevent or address moral distress, occurs later than most NICU HCP consider appropriate and appears to better serve HCP who are already comfortable with discussing moral distress. Helping HCP become comfortable with crucial conversations should support meaningful participation and contribution to multidisciplinary conferences.
  American Journal of Perinatology 05/2012; 29(9):687-92. · 1.32 Impact Factor
• Article: The comprehensive care rounds: facilitating multidisciplinary communication among caregivers of complex patients in the neonatal intensive care unit.

  Virginia D Boos, Felix A Okah, Cameron H Swinton, Dawn M Wolff, Barbara Haney
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  ABSTRACT: Care of the very sick infant can be complicated by extraneous factors that challenge the cohesiveness of the health care team. Chaos results from low levels of professional agreement and certainty about outcomes and manifests in stress and miscommunication among care providers. This milieu is fertile ground for errors of commission and omission. Effective communication and collaboration are recognized as essential for reducing medical errors in such stressful environments. This article describes a multidisciplinary conference, the Comprehensive Care Rounds, at a neonatal intensive care unit of a Magnet-recognized midwestern pediatric hospital. The Comprehensive Care Round provides a forum for open communication among team members and builds on the hospital's efforts at systems approach to developing a culture of safety and quality.
  Advances in Neonatal Care 12/2010; 10(6):301-6.