-
Multidisciplinary Cardiac Feeding Clinics
We are in the process of proposing a ½ day per month multidisciplinary cardiac feeding clinic to manage patients discharged with tube feedings, follow them for transition to oral feeds (hopefully) and weaning guidance. This would include all of the cardiology patients discharged with NG or G tube feedings. I’m assessing to see which roles are included on your team if you have a similar clinic currently as well as any helpful hints.
Cardiac provider?
Dietitian?
Speech pathologist?
Other?
Thanks in advance for your assistance!
-
2 Replies
-
Truthfully, this sounds like a great opportunity to provide consistent support for families managing tube feedings while also working toward oral feeding goals, which I think is a big goal of ‘normalcy’ for patients and families alike. In addition to pediatric cardiologists and advanced practice providers, I do agree that it would be valuable to include a multidisciplinary team with the members you stated, as well as a registered nurse, occupational therapist (maybe more for older kids involved with feeding), and social worker or continuity of care counselor. Nursing could play an important role in caregiver education, tube-feeding troubleshooting, medication reinforcement, and identifying concerns that need follow-up. Social work is one of our best resources for discharging complex cardiac patients. It is expensive, hard work, and emotionally tolling for families. Having multiple disciplines available during the same clinic visit could also reduce the number of appointments families need and improve continuity of care. One of the biggest obstacles with discharge is the fear of being alone in their child’s medical care. I wonder how much rebound failure to thrive / admission for miscommunication or missed education would be impacted with monthly clinics. I’d be interested to hear whether your clinic is also considering lactation consultants or child life specialists for younger patients and families who may benefit from additional feeding support. I love this idea and I hope this gave another layer of insight!
-
We have just started a similar 1/2 day monthly clinic at our institution. We have a cardiology NP (me), dietitian and speech therapist that all see that patient/family at the same time. We have one hour slots so have 4 openings per month currently. This may need to expand in the future as we have more data.
Trudy Pierick, ARNP
Peds Cardiology, U of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital
Log in to reply.