Morgan Kowalski

The Family-Centered Care Taskforce stands as a pioneering force, being the FIRST international, multicenter, collaborative initiative solely dedicated to quality improvement in NICU Family-Centered Care. The Taskforce has over 1100 members and employs a small group quality improvement collaborative model by offering free monthly Office Hours for those looking to overcome barriers to implementing FCC and a large group model by offering free educational bi-monthly webinars. Our key strength is equal partnership between healthcare providers and Family Partners, enabling effective communication and facilitating change across various healthcare settings. By sharing evidence-based practices and critical family perspectives during webinars and promoting accountability through Office Hours, we are creating a forward movement to close the healthcare gap. Click here to sign up for Office Hours at no cost and visit our website, www.fcctaskforce.org, to subscribe to our mailing list and receive invitations to our webinars! Our next webinar takes place July 11th at 11 am PST. 

As we celebrated our second anniversary of facilitating free educational webinars in May of this year, we cannot help but reflect on where we began. The Family-Centered Care Taskforce was founded by Malathi Balasundaram, MD, a Clinical Professor at Stanford School of Medicine and an attending neonatologist and FCC Committee Chair at El Camino Health NICU. Malathi saw a need for an organization dedicated to quality improvement in NICU Family-Centered Care. She pitched her idea of creating the FCC Taskforce to colleagues at the Gravens Conference and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Trainees, and Early Career Neonatologists (TECaN) Executive Council. Shortly thereafter, a ‘welcome to the Taskforce’ email was sent to 50 dedicated members in February of 2022, and just over two years later, that number has grown to over 1,100 members from almost every U.S. State and 36 countries around the world. 

Colby Day, MD, Medical Director of Golisano Children’s Hospital NICU, joined the Taskforce as a co-chair alongside Malathi at the Taskforce’s inception. The pair invited Keira Sorrells, former NICU parent and Founder and Executive Director of NICU Parent Network, to join them on the Core Team in March of 2023 and recruited Morgan Kowalski, a former NICU parent, and Family Partner in her local unit, to serve as Program Manager in May of 2023 in the spirit of equal partnership between families and clinicians. 

The Taskforce began our work by helping centers around the globe begin and strengthen FCC practices in their NICUs by recruiting and facilitating live bi-monthly webinars beginning in May of 2022, with speakers from diverse backgrounds and roles. In 2023, we continued these well-attended events and recruited 22 centers that wanted to overcome barriers in implementing FCC Committees and Family Partnership/Advisory Councils. These centers were split into five small groups based on AAP levels of care, and monthly meetings were held to discuss challenges around implementing FCC and strategies for overcoming them. These small group QI collaborative opportunities served participants well, with 59% creating an active FCC Committee and 45% creating an active Family Partnership/Advocacy Council in just one year. These advancements are significant, and we are continuing a similar but more inclusive opportunity for NICUs to brainstorm with others during our monthly Office Hours sessions in 2024. 

Here are some testimonials from members who participated in small groups in 2023: 

“Thank you for all your hard work in engaging NICU teams all around the country on this Taskforce! Our unit has been able to share our FCC team’s efforts as well as availability of rich information-sharing that has helped us refine our family-centered care processes in our NICU.”  

— Sangeeta, California

“Our unit in Israel joined the FCC Taskforce a year and a half ago. We have attended general and small group sessions in which we have received mentoring from leading figures in the field of FCC. We have learned a lot! We now have a better understanding of the core elements of FCC and are learning about different and practical ways we can implement FCC in our unit. We could not have made this possible without the support of our mentors, and we are very grateful for them and for this amazing model of support.”  

— Rafi, Tel Aviv

“I am so proud to be on this Taskforce and to see the widespread change that is happening in units. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to connect with colleagues who share my passion for FCC. I learn something new in every webinar!” 

— Maria, Texas 

Our Executive Council of diverse Healthcare and Family Partners supports the success of the FCC Taskforce in assisting NICUs. Healthcare Partners come from organizational, quality improvement, and multidisciplinary clinical backgrounds, some of whom are former NICU parents. Family Partners are diverse in their experiences, with full-term NICU journeys and non-birthing parent representation. They support their local NICUs, direct their organizations, contribute to nonprofits supporting NICU families, and hold esteemed positions in national QI collaboratives, respectively. Executive Council members facilitate Newsletters, Marketing and Communications, and Advocacy subcommittees, which help disseminate current best practices and create new ones. The Taskforce is also supported by esteemed national and international organizational partners. We are sharing the program overview below. Join us in strengthening FCC in your NICU.