34. Rachel Crook - caring for little ones, as a mum and a nurse!

Wild Card - Whose Shoes?

Today we continue the theme around support for children and families.
My guest is Rachel Crook, who is a mummy to 2 young girls AND a paediatric nurse. I met Rachel when she spoke at a recent Whose Shoes event in the Midlands, focusing on early years’ care. I was thrilled she agreed to talk to me on the podcast and give us an insight into her ‘both sides of the fence’ experiences.
The combination of having both lived and learnt experience can sometimes be the most powerful of all …
Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋

• Being a parent, worried about your child(ren) and trying to get answers, is HARD
• It takes a LONG time to diagnose some chronic conditions; a holistic approach is essential
• Patients and family carers do NOT make this stuff up – BELIEVE them!
• Look at the WHOLE child. And then the child within the family, including mental health needs
• We NEED to join the dots. Will the new Integrated Care Boards deliver?
• Appointment delays have a huge effect
• BIG responsibility to get the most out of those brief healthcare appointments
• Loads of impacts when only one parent allowed to attend a healthcare appointment
• HCPs: how it feels to move to ‘the other side of the fence’
• Why does it feel like a fence, a battleground - let's work together!
• In Whose Shoes, we try to explore solutions that work for both ‘sides’.
• Listen! Never have preconceived ideas about the outcome
• Reach out! If you don’t know there is a problem, you can’t fix it
• How about recording difficult conversations?
• The last appointment of the day - can be detrimental
• Should parents be allowed to communicate with individual NHS HCPs?
• It is hard for children with food allergies, excluding favourite foods. Dippy eggs!
• Difficult balancing act between playing down concerns for the child, but having an open conversation with the HCP
• Play therapists enable parents to speak openly and get the most out of consultations
• Find imaginative workarounds to give children with nutritional needs the same educational and social experience as their peers
• School! Give plenty of notice! Parents can’t rustle up a gluten-free, soya free, dairy free gingerbread man at no notice
• Chronic conditions are expensive AND you need to be good at maths and science!
• It helps to know what to expect. How long will it take? What is involved? Preparing a child is so important!
• Involve parents in writing letters - the right info and … language matters!
• Different perspectives: something that is an admin issue to you might be HUGE to me
• Acknowledge parents as experts, and the amount of care they are delivering
• Commissioning systems are affecting the quality of care that can be provided
• Positive changes do not have to be huge. They have to be doable
• There is an amazing global network around kindness!
• Happiness is infectious!
• Self-care and wellness are essential for professionals!
• Work together! Join-the-buzzwords – integration, what matters to you #WMTY, personalised care and more!
• Let’s help Rachel’s important book get published! 🙏🏼
• Mega collective wisdom in the ‘Wild Card - Whose Shoes’ podcast series! 😀

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Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

Chapters

1. 34. Rachel Crook - caring for little ones, as a mum and a nurse! (00:00:00)

2. The third in a series of podcast episodes around children and young people (00:00:40)

3. Rachel is a mummy AND a paediatric nurse. (00:02:45)

4. It takes a long long time to diagnose some chronic conditions. A holistic approach is essential. We NEED to join the dots. (00:03:13)

5. When your child tells you multiple times a day, that she has a sore tummy, it is difficult to hear. We are trying to get answers. (00:04:20)

6. This podcast series has had previous contributors talking about not being believed. We do NOT make this stuff up. (00:08:00)

7. Rachel was diagnosed with OCD – obsessive, compulsive disorder. So she is worried that they will think it is all about her. This can be lonely. (00:09:16)

8. The impact when only one parent is allowed to attend healthcare (00:10:44)

9. Appointment delays due to Covid have been har. Huge responsibility to get the most out of those brief healthcare appointments. (00:12:10)

10. Trial and error. Trying to identify the cause of Rachel‘s daughters tummy problems (00:13:10)

11. Someone with lived experience. Someone with learnt experience. How it feels to move to ‘the other side of the fence’ (00:14:21)

12. What is it that we do that makes it a battleground, rather than all working together? There has to be a better way! (00:14:40)

13. The importance of listening. Not having preconceived ideas about what the outcome should be. (00:16:15)

14. Integrated care. How will things change now with Integrated Care Boards, from 1 July 2022? (00:16:40)

15. Would it be a good idea to have a recording of difficult conversations? (00:17:30)

16. The last appointment of the day. Not always good. (00:19:45)

17. Rachel has listened to ALL the ‘Wild Card - Whose Shoes’ podcast episodes, 😀 (00:22:07)

18. Should parents be allowed to communicate with individual NHS healthcare professionals (00:23:15)

19. In Whose Shoes, we try to explore solutions that work for both sides. (00:24:18)

20. The question of being able to speak openly and honestly about anxieties affecting the children, when they are there (00:24:58)

21. The practicalities of trying to explore food allergies, and whether to exclude certain foods. Dippy eggs! (00:26:10)

22. The difficult balancing act between playing down concerns for the child, but having an open honest conversation with the healthcare professional, to get the most out of the consultation! (00:27:19)

23. School! What can schools do to help the situation when there are ongoing health needs? (00:30:20)

24. We need more notice! It is impossible to rustle up a gluten-free, soya free, dairy free gingerbread man at no notice, but so important that children with nutritional needs have the same educational and social experience as their peers (00:31:36)

25. Finding imaginative work arounds (00:34:08)

26. Chronic conditions are expensive! And you need to be good at maths and science to handle it! (00:35:25)

27. It really helps to know what to expect. How long? What is involved? Preparing a child is so important! (00:38:30)

28. As always, the little things are the big things. These things matter! (00:42:03)

29. Something that is an administrative issue to you is fundamental to my whole life. Different perspectives (00:42:23)

30. Innovative coproduction. Getting the patients involved in writing the letters, so they contain the necessary information and land well with the recipient! (00:43:45)

31. Language matters! (00:44:16)

32. Acknowledging parents as experts, and the amount of care they are actually delivering (00:45:07)

33. All too often, healthcare professionals are just looking at parts of the child. They need to look at the whole child. And then the child within the family! (00:48:16)

34. The way we commission services does not help. It is affecting the quality of care that can be provided. (00:48:33)

35. The Art of Brilliance - Andy Cope. A PHd in happiness. Should Rachel do a PhD around kindness? 🍋💡🍋 (00:50:51)

36. Networking! Meet Nicki Macklin who is doing a PhD around kindness in New Zealand! (00:52:57)

37. Positive changes do not have to be huge. They have to be doable. (00:53:55)

38. Happiness is infectious! (00:54:10)

39. Rachel‘s conference… involving Yvonne Newbold too! Self-care and wellness for professionals! (00:55:00)

40. Personalisation of healthcare is not something that will just happen our challenge for the integrated care system is to… Integrate! Work together! Join the password – what matters to you, personalised care and more! (00:59:18)

41. Reach out! Listen to people! If you don’t know there is a problem, you can’t fix it (01:00:30)

42. Rachel‘s book! 📕 - Journey to a diagnosis? Is there anyone out there who could help this important book published? (01:01:46)

43. .Publishing books is not easy. Gill started to write ‘life in the slow lane’ when her children were young. (01:04:04)