Standardizing family education in a pediatric respiratory care unit.

THE PEDIATRIC RESPIRATORY care unit (PRCU) is a 6-bed unit for infants and children with a tracheostomy tube who may or may not also be ventilator dependent. The primary goal of the PRCU is to support these patients and their caregivers through education by utilizing evidence based multi-disciplinary care. In planning for these patients' discharge to home the most critical piece is caregiver education and skills training for tracheostomy and ventilator care. Discharge requirements for home include two caregivers who have completed our training program in tracheostomy and ventilator care, so they can safely manage the child during times when there is no nursing support in the home. The program has been in place for more than 20 years however we found that over time, caregiver education and skills training became unstructured among the nursing staff resulting in prolonged training time, length of stays, and varying levels of competency of caregivers.