Heartbeat: Tiniest patients and parents reunited through VCreate
November 6, 2020
A brand new video messaging service has been reconnecting worried parents with the little bundles of joy being cared for in our neonatal unit at City Hospital.
When the happiest moment of your life suddenly takes an unexpected turn and your newborn needs urgent and intensive care you would be in no better hands than those of the team within the neonatal department at City Hospital. And as much as you would want to spend every waking moment next to your child, there are going to be occasions when you have to step away, look after siblings or simply get some rest. It’s these moments where parents often feel they miss key moments, and it’s an area where VCreate is making its mark.
VCreate is a secure online video messaging platform designed to reconnect parents and their babies who are being cared for in hospital. When parents are away, and the babies are in the care of colleagues in the neonatal unit, they can capture, create and securely share short videos with parents, ensuring they don’t miss a moment.
Neonatal Discharge Planning Sister, Nicole Miles was a key driving force in the introduction of the new platform in the Trust. Sharing her thoughts she said: “VCreate finally gives us a safe way to document and share those crucial little moments in a baby’s early life. One of the most important things we try to facilitate is for parents and their newborns to interact and have their time together and this platform helps us do that even when the parents aren’t here.
“Often parents have other children they have to look after and need time to rest themselves. And when they’re not here, we can continue looking after their babies, filming, photographing and sharing their precious moments with them.
“Most parents expect the pregnancy to last for 40 weeks and to walk away from the hospital with a baby in their arms. When it doesn’t go to plan, it can be a scary and traumatic time. This technology goes a long way to helping calm their nerves, with the steady stream of pictures and videos providing them with much needed emotional support and reassurance.
“The platform has been especially useful during the COVID-19 pandemic where we have had to be extra cautious, whilst parents have been able to visit, unfortunately, siblings and grandparents have not. VCreate has given us the means to give parents a lifeline into the hospital to see how their baby is at any time and share their development with their family.”