Welcoming new ICN care team members

Once or twice a year, ImproveCareNow hosts an online training event called Immersion to welcome new care center staff to our community. Participants leave Immersion with a greater understanding of how ICN makes a difference; how their efforts at their care center matter; and how they can develop relationships and find support within our ICN Community.

During Immersion a team of experienced ICN center staff, ICN staff and Quality Improvement (QI) mentors orient new ICN community members to our network culture and assist them in aligning their new ICN activities with their local workflows. Immersion is a great opportunity to build relationships and learn how people across ImproveCareNow (clinicians, researchers, patients, caregivers, improvers & friends) work together to transform the health, care and cost for kids with IBD at local care centers and beyond.

At the end of Immersion, participants (new and long-time ICN members) were asked to answer three questions:

What excites you about ImproveCareNow?

💚 Learning from others – Sharon P. 

💙 Helping medicine & science – Ruth H. 

💚 Sense of Community – Jon M. 

💙 Registry to track outcomes – Corrie C. 

💚 Having an opportunity to have my voice heard as a caregiver to a Crohn’s kid – Lisa P.

💙 It’s a collaborative effort – Shanitra M.

💚 The desire to keep on improving how we help kids with diagnoses – Isavel M.

💙 Contributing to medicine and science and the interconnection of it all – Grace A. 

💚 A place for providers, patients and family to come together and create better network within IBD care – Noelle M.

💙 Improving the lives of kiddos – Ezra G. 

💚 Its synergistic approach – Linda B.

💙 The opportunity to collab with others – Connor K.

💚 The ability to work with EVERYONE to deliver superior outcomes, partnerships, research and discovery and learn from each other – Shehzad S. 

💙 Desire to grow and learn as a group and helping one another to improve care of patients – Natalie M.

💚 Improving health of the community – Judylynn N. 

What about ImproveCareNow is most important to patients and families?

💚 Community and support network - Noelle M.

💙 Peer support for the patients – PAC! – Jon M.

💚 The great care – Lauren B. 

💙 Helping kids into remission – Maria E. 

💚 Helping future IBD kids – Erika G.

💙 That they feel important and valued – Shantira M.

💚 Knowing they’re not alone – Natalie M.

💙 Helps to fill in or prevent care gaps for them – Linda B.

💚 Increased remission – Pam F. 

💙 The research, PAC, LOOP – Tracy B. 

💚 Providers have a resource to network and learn best practices for improving care for the kids – Megan G.

💙 Statistical and support data that confirms improvement and giving hope to those families and children who deal with IBD as well – Grace A.

How does ImproveCareNow bring value to your Care Center?

💚 Access to best practices, research, professional colleagues – Ruth H.

💙 Our team knows that our work translates to meaningful care – Linda B.

💚 Providers in our ICN centers are more informed and best practices and latest resources and research versus our experiences with non-ICN Centers over the past 13 years of military moves – Megan G.

💙 It allows us to give parents and children access to a platform of important resources and access to supporting research for IBD and a network of support – Grace A. 

Tell us what you think!

If you participate at or receive care from an ICN Care Center, you can share your answers to those three questions and we might feature them in an upcoming LOOP post or on social media.

Join us for a live event!

Would you like to experience ImproveCareNow in action and witness some of the exciting things we are working on together? Join us at our Live Online Community Conference on April 27 & 28. All are welcome to join this online event, and IBD patients and their families can join for free. Register today and we will share the event agenda as soon as it is released so you can plan which sessions you would like to join.

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Get #InTheLOOP with more Notes From The Field stories on the ImproveCareNow blog >>

Put in your time and energy on behalf of someone else. No effort is too small, because everything we do in ImproveCareNow is magnified by the efforts of thousands of other improvers, and together we bring about a better quality of life for many. Here are some actions you can take, or invite others to take:

• Invite someone to stay #InTheLOOP with IBD stories on the ICN blog - "Sharing stories and experiences is affirming and validating. Our stories reach others and they help, which is the most wonderful part of being involved with ImproveCareNow." - Quint 

• Invite a patient (14+) to join the Patient Advisory Council - "Being part of the PAC helps me remember that I'm not alone in this journey." - Rhea 

• Invite a parent or family member of a child with IBD to join the Parent/Family Advisory Council - "I was astounded by the instant bond established with parents I had never met. Every conversation provided me with strength. It ignited another purpose in my life." - Maria

• Invite someone to download free, co-produced IBD resources - "Physical resources provide patients with actions that we can take toward bettering our quality of life, as well as our current and future care." - Quint

• Invite someone to Join Our CIRCLE - "Resources we found in CIRCLE eNews do not just focus on physical health, but also on critical areas like social-emotional needs, nutrition, back-to-school planning and mindfulness. These are valuable tools for my son to remain healthy." - Lisa