How does PaedCCF ICU work? A step-by-step guide

As a paediatrician, how well do you listen to parents, carers and children? The Paediatric Carers of Children Feedback (PaedCCF) tool helps you measure how well you interact with these groups in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and to identify any areas that may need attention. You will need to get at least 40 completed feedback forms over a year.
Status
Last modified
17 March 2022

Who should do the PaedCCF ICU?

The GMC (General Medical Council) expects all licensed doctors to gather patient feedback for revalidation.

PaedCCF ICU is a useful tool for doctors working in neonatal or paediatric intensive care who do not have a more suitable alternative provided by their employer or designated body.

We also have a tool for outpatient services.

Please note Due to current circumstances, we are unable to provide packs containing pre-printed paper forms and envelopes for the return of completed forms. If you will require paper forms in order to collect feedback from your patients, please contact revalidation@rcpch.ac.uk before submitting your application and we will be happy to provide further information about an alternative process we currently have available for paper-based feedback collection.

Step-by-step guide

Apply Here      Make Payment

  1. Apply for membership above (tool open to non-trainees only), and complete a PaedCCF ICU application. Please do email revalidation if you have any query's revalidation@rcpch.ac.uk
  2. Payment for the PaedCCF ICU is made online via the RCPCH website, there will be a direct link once you have finished application. Please log into your RCPCH account to make payment. Full instructions for making payment can be found on the application form.
  3. We will email you to confirm your registration.
  4. We will send another email that explains how to sign in to your RCPCH ePortfolio to complete your self-assessment.
  5. After you submit your self-assessment, you will get a unique URL (website address). Print as a tear-off sheet and share with unit staff who are supporting you to gather patient feedback, so they can share these with your patients or their parents/carers. You can download guidance for unit staff and a reminder poster below.
  6. You have about 12 months to gather sufficient feedback.
  7. Once you have reached the minimum number required (40 responses for ICU), you can produce your own report via RCPCH ePortfolio.
  8. If you need an interim results report before you have gained the minimum number, please send us proof of your revalidation date (eg a copy of your revalidation letter from the GMC) and we will manually generate an early report before reopening your PaedCCF event to gather more feedback.
  9. Any concerns raised around falsified data or cheating during the quality assurance process will be fully investigated - see the workplace based assessment falsification protocol below.

Additional information

The RCPCH PaedCCF tool includes a unique website link for patients, parents and carers to provide their feedback online and without the need for paper forms. 

Important note about RCPCH ePortfolio

Please note that use of RCPCH ePortfolio means that your email address will be retained by the RCPCH ePortfolio system to identify you when you login. Due to the nature of RCPCH ePortfolio, your email address will be searchable in the system. We therefore encourage you to use your work email address when registering for PaedCCF rather than your personal email address.

Current cost per round

Members: £40

Non-members: £60

Additional resources for those using PaedCCF ICU

See below to access:

  • PaedCCF in RCPCH ePortfolio user guide
  • Distribution guidelines for unit staff
  • Distribution guidelines with cover note for doctor
  • PaedCCF Parent notice poster
  • PaedCCF doctor_unit staff reminder poster
  • Example PaedCCF ICU results report
  • PaedCCF ICU results report guidance
  • Example PaedCCF ICU form
  • Workplace-based assessment falsification protocol

PaedCCF validity

This tool has been validated and meets the criteria laid out by the GMC.

Further information on pilots is available in Feedback on doctors’ performance from parents and carers of children: a national pilot study in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

A very small number of paediatricians who completed the PaedCCF tool have advised that their employers will not accept the PaedCCF results and rather asked to complete the organisation's own patient feedback tool. The RCPCH does not consider this advice to meet GMC guidance, as the PaedCCF tool meets GMC criteria for patient feedback tools.

A RCPCH validity of PaedCCF statement has been issued for use by any paediatricians in this situation - see below.

Further information about GMC criteria, GMC FAQs on patient feedback, case studies for doctors collecting patient feedback and leaflets for patients can be found on the GMC website - see below link.

Frequently asked questions

It is entirely up to you and what you think your parents/carers will best respond to. Issuing weblinks gives them a quick and easy way to complete feedback, at a time that suits them.

However, not everyone will have internet access. If your patient population is less likely to have internet access via mobile devices or desktop computers, you may prefer to request paper forms. These can be completed and returned in clinic, or taken home and posted back.The paper forms also have the weblink on them to allow parents/carers both options.

Each unit will need to consider how best to manage this. However previous experience suggests that parents who are shown small headshots of the doctors on the unit will identify the doctor they are able to give feedback about, so that the unit staff/nurse can issue the weblink or form for that doctor to the parent/carer.

As each doctor has a twelve month period during which to collect feedback, it may be possible to stagger the distribution of forms to minimise confusion and/or survey fatigue.

Each unit will need to consider how best to manage this. Suggestions are:

  • If Transport Service doctors are participating, weblinks or forms and envelopes should be issued  to parents when the patient arrives at the unit for treatment so parents can complete and submit/return forms before the parents leave.
  • For doctors working on ICU/NNU units, nurses should hand out a weblink or form and envelope to parents/carers during a specified period, whether or not the doctor has met them before (but not if they have previously given their feedback).
  • Periods of service, ideally of 1 week duration but variable by unit, would offer a suitable timeframe over which to do this, although a number of such periods may be necessary to generate sufficient feedback.
  • Decisions about which meetings with parents should be used as the basis for gathering feedback should be taken at local unit level. However meetings away from the bedside, either at initial admission or for later updating of parents/carers, may be more suitable. Meetings including the child are also encouraged, so that the child is able to contribute their views, if able to do so.

Many of the parents/carers don’t speak English as their first language/don’t read English well.

We are now in a position to provide a translation of the tool questions as well as accompany informational guidance in a range of languages. Therefore, if you work in a setting where this would be useful, please contact the Revalidation team via revalidation@rcpch.ac.uk or call 0207 092 6152 or 0207 092 6148 and we will endeavour to get those out to you within ten working days. 

The parents/carers don’t always have time to fill in the form before leaving.

Unit staff should give these parents/carers a brown RCPCH-freepost envelope so the form can be posted back directly to RCPCH or give them a weblink so they can complete it on a mobile device.

Some of the questions on the form do not apply to particular patients; what should I do?

We would suggest that unit staff explain that the form is used across different types of units and some questions may not be relevant, in which case parents/carers should use the N/A (not applicable) option. Alternatively some questions may just need minor explanation to help the parent/carer see the relevance to their situation.

Most of the doctor’s patients are older children/teenagers who can fill the form in themselves, but it is aimed at their parents/carers.

Previous research shows that children’s ratings are idiosyncratic and that it is necessary to sample a much greater number of children to obtain the same degree of statistical validity as with adults alone (100 versus 20-40). Pilots of the outpatient version of PaedCCF have shown that if children contribute to the adults’ ratings or contribute alone, then the results are statistically valid, but scores are higher than when completed by the parent/carer alone, sometimes statistically significantly so. There is currently no data looking specifically at the validity of results from children alone. We would however strongly encourage, age permitting, children to complete the form if they are able to do so.

In many cases, the baby/child/young person is in a critical condition or has a poor prognosis and it feels insensitive to approach the parent/carer for feedback.

Ultimately, this is an area of professional judgement and the decision needs to be taken locally/in the moment. There are some circumstances in which it would not be appropriate to ask for feedback immediately (for example if the baby/child is dying or where there may be child protection issues). However, the skills about which doctors are seeking feedback are equally important in difficult circumstances, if not more so, and parents/carers may often wish to give their views. Additionally, there is a risk otherwise that the parents/carers who are asked, and provide feedback, are those who spend least time with the doctor and this may
skew the results.

We recommend that the posters provided are displayed to ensure that all parents/carers (and staff) have a general awareness that the feedback process is ongoing.

Contact

If you have any queries about PaedCCF please contact the Revalidation Team on revalidation@rcpch.ac.uk or call 0207 092 6152 or 0207 092 6148.