Van Kemenade ACT

On Monday, February 3rd a workshop was held in Woudenberg (NL) for 16 volunteers from Bulgaria, Ghana, Lithuania, Czech Republic and the Netherlands, who work on the International Award for Young People. That program seeks to support young people to get to know and explore  their talents.

This workshop was the start of a week with the title Non Formal Learning and Youth Work Methods and was organised by the Dutch Award programme in a Erasmus+-project. The participants were very motivated for helping the youngsters and very much willing to reflect on their own behaviour. They explored their passion, mission, calling and purpose.   Remarks from the evaluation: The workshop was very useful and revealing; it inspired me to work on my own goals; it was very meaningful. The participants rated the workshop in average 4.3 on a 5 point-scale. Special thanks to Tom Kuijpers who granted me the assignment.

The first two groups of staff of White And Yellow Cross Care Foundation have been trained in Client Centered Care. Participants came from all over the organisation, nursing, but also laundry, kitchen, facility management. The idea is that every staff member can make a difference in a resident’s life.

Important part of the training was the Life Story Guide (see blog #26). Participants interviewed in groups of two a resident about his/her past, about what he or she likes now and even about a bucket list. Preferences about food, activities and music were inventoried, so in future we can better fulfil the needs and wishes of the clients or rather we can delight them!!! The plan is to summarise the most important topics out of the life story on a poster that then can be stuck on a wall in the resident’s room. Resident’s were very happy that they were asked and the interviewers learned a lot they did not know about them.

Two more groups of staff will follow in March 2020.

 

On the 15th of November the fourth SYNERGY meeting took place on Sint Maarten. This meeting of the Caribbean Network of Leadership in Health Care was hosted by Sint Maarten Medical Centre this time. There were 29 participants, from 9 healthcare institutes from St Maarten, Statia and Saba.

Th network keeps growing. From 13 participants the first meeting to 23, to 28 and to 29 this time. The topic of the day was Prevention. Eric Gertner , Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida, Morsani School of Medicine in Tampa, Florida held the keynote speech. His presentation scored 8.0 on a ten-pointscale. Thereafter there were 10-minute presentations by each of the partners (score 7.6).

The lunch by Emilio’s was very good, as usual.

In the afternoon a WorldCafe session was organised around three questions:

1. What is the take home message from the presentations on prevention?

2. Wat hinders prevention?

2. What supports prevention?

This event scored even a 8.1. The day overall was rated the first time 8.2, the second time 8.5, the third time 8.6 and now back to 8.4 on a ten point scale.  Still a good score, but the participants feel the topics need to be discussed deeper and there should be some activity in between the half yearly meetings. The possibility for networking in all four meetings was rated 8.7.  The question to what extent this day motivated to come next time rated 8.0  (third time 8,7, second time 8.7; first time 8.3).

One of the suggestions made is not only to present what has been done, but also the results. Furthermore there is a need not only to present success stories, but also show what did not go well and ask the audience for support, suggestions for improvement. Actually , the presentation of Saba Healthcare Foundation by Joka Blaauboer ended with the question for suggestions how to improve the compliance to hand hygiene.

After the meeting we gathered at Emilio’s for a final networking session.

The next meeting is planned in March 2020 hosted by Mental Health Foundation on St Maarten. Topics will be incident reporting  and health education.

On the 15th of November 2019 the fourth meeting of SYNERGY, the Caribbean Network of Leadership in Healthcare will be held on St. Maarten.

The meeting is organised in cooperation with Sint Maarten Medical Centre. Main topic this time is Prevention. Keynote speaker will be Eric Gertner, Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida, Morsani School of Medicine in Tampa, Florida.  More information can be found the SYNERGY website.

Continue reading “# 28 In memoriam Ad Vermeulen”