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Insights on the internet June 9, 2001 - The father of a baby in a neonatal intensive care unit was a web page designer. He decided to post a page that described the ongoing medical and nursing care being given to his son and update it regularly. He and his partner told anxious relatives and friends about the page and explained that posting information on it would allow them to concentrate on their son. "When we first saw Jasper," he wrote, "as well as the ventilator, he had a small tube going down to his stomach to let air escape and for feeding when he reached that stage. "He had a line into an artery in his arm which was used to measure blood pressure and heart rate and provide a painless method for taking blood." He also described possible complications: "The doctors expect that `24 weekers' are likely to get a brain haemorrhage at some stage. These seem to be categorised small, medium, or large. "Jasper has developed a medium one which although it isn't life threatening, needs to be kept an eye on. It could just melt away, or it could cause future complications that have been anticipated." Not only did the website benefit the baby's relatives, it had an unexpected advantage for medical staff: it provided documentation of what the parents understood about their son's condition. We thus had direct feedback about our communication to the parents and about which facts had been misinterpreted. This allowed conversations with the parents to be tailored specifically to their understanding of their son's condition. The site was also useful for staff on different shifts because it helped to establish what had been discussed previously. Feedback is essential; it helps to improve both clinical and non-clinical skills, but it can be hard to obtain feedback on areas such as communication. We should make the most of feedback regardless of where it comes from and keep our eyes open to opportunities that may give us a special insight into the minds of our patients and their families. Sarah J Bridges, specialist registrar in paediatrics. Southmead Hospital, Bristol British Medical Journal electronic edition http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7299/1388 janet paterson: an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit perky, parky . pd: 54/41/37 cd: 54/44/43 tel: 613 256 8340 email: [log in to unmask] . snail mail: 375 Country Street, Apt 301, Almonte, Ontario, Canada, K0A 1A0 . a new voice: the nnnewsletter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/janet313/ . a new voice: the wwweb site: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn