TeleBoard: The move to a virtual family advisory board

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2020

Identifier

DOI: 10.35680/2372-0247.1472

Abstract

Restrictions on in-person meetings were going to hamper the ability for the well-established Family Advisory Board (FAB) for our pediatric hospital to continue meeting unless a virtual meeting platform was introduced. The FAB was moved to a virtual platform for the April and May 2020 meetings. Attendance rates from family members and staff were measured and compared to the previous 14 in-person meetings. Contributions during the virtual meetings from each attendee type were recorded to analyze engagement during virtual meetings. There was no statistical difference in average attendance for virtual compared to in-person meetings, 75% versus 64.3% for family members (p-value = 0.20) and 70% versus 56.2% for staff (p-value = 0.38). Family members offered more new ideas (11 to 31) and verbal contributions (24 to 53) from April to May, respectively. Staff gave more affirmations than family members in April (56 staff vs. 15 family), but this inverted in May (35 staff vs. 113 family). The variety of voice from family representatives increased for all contribution types except verbal from April (100%) to May (50%). In our setting, we found Family Advisory Board meeting attendance was equivalent to in-person meetings with the potential added benefit of being more inclusive to marginalized or under-represented groups.

Journal Title

Patient Experience Journal

Volume

7

Issue

2

First Page

83

Last Page

86

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