October 24, 2017

Heather Eppelheimer is a child life specialist with Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. While she is quick to offer support in any way she can, Heather’s primary responsibility is to work closely with expecting families who have lost a child.

Heather helps these families cope with their loss and create lasting memories of their child. She offers the same type of support to her colleagues who might be going through a stressful time, consistently rising above and beyond as a supportive teammate.

“Heather has become a staple of support and mentorship for our Child Life Department,” said Saraben Turner, a child life manager. “She approaches each day with a mission to provide optimal, compassionate care to her patients and families, while also ensuring that her colleagues and teammates are feeling supported in the exceptional work they do.”

“She truly exemplifies living compassionately and amplifying unity in her every day work,” Turner continued. “She is continually provided with Caught You Caring awards and other recognitions highlighting the strong work she provides to patients and their families, her team and Texas Children’s Hospital.”

Launched in 2015, Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program is a systemwide program that recognizes employees for going above and beyond to provide compassion and kindness in the care of a patient, family or co-worker. Recently, Epplelheimer was among more than a dozen employees who received a pair of tickets to watch the Houston Texans Play 60 game on October 1, after being recognized for his acts of kindness through this program.

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference.

To nominate a colleague, Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found across the Texas Children’s hospital system for patients and families to fill out. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

For the next three weeks, Connect will feature a series of Caught You Caring videos spotlighting several of our employees who have gone above and beyond their role in the care of our patients and their families.

Pediatric plastic surgeon Dr. Edward Buchanan has published his third children’s book in a series called the Mental Ninja Series.

The first two books of the series, “The Adventures of the Prickly Pear and the Happy Hoglet: Beginning the Journey of the Mental Ninja” and “Pit Bully: The Mental Ninja Awakens,” introduce readers to a world of characters focused on understanding themselves, their feeling and the control they have over their emotions.

In “The Tale of Fenny Fox: The Mental Ninja Emerges,” the journey continues, with the introduction to more characters and a message about the beauty of differences and the importance those differences play in people’s lives.

For more information about Buchanan’s book series, click here.

October 17, 2017

Last week, Texas Children’s co-hosted the largest annual nursing conference in the country, along with other local Magnet® hospitals. More than 10,000 nurses and nursing executives representing more than 20 countries gathered at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston for the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) National Magnet Conference® from October 11 to 13.

Texas Children’s Magnet team handled various parts of the coordination including registering and preparing staff volunteers to serve in a variety of roles at the conference. The team also organized a pediatric Magnet® hospital networking dinner and hospital tours for nursing leaders from pediatric hospitals across the country as well as a tour for nurses from Lebanon. The groups toured the Cancer Center, Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, and Mission Control at Texas Children’s Medical Center campus.

Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo Andre and Executive Vice President Dan DiPrisco welcomed the more than 10,000 attendees at the opening session. In addition to poster presentations, several of Texas Children’s nurses and staff delivered insightful podium presentations during the three-day Magnet Conference® including a presentation on how simulation-based design tests prior to the construction of Legacy Tower helped optimize patient care workflows to enhance patient safety, minimize risk and foster family-centered care.

“It is so motivating and inspiring to see the great works of other nurse colleagues,” said Leslie Morris, education coordinator at Texas Children’s Heart Center. “The nursing conference also provided great opportunities for networking.”

As the official annual conference of the prestigious Magnet Recognition Program®, the event recognized the accomplishments of newly designated Magnet organizations and showcased best nursing practices that organizations can incorporate in their own nursing programs.

“I think it is important for our nurses to attend the Magnet Conference® to fully understand what it means to be a Magnet nurse,” said Curt Roberts, a staff nurse in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Texas Children’s. “When you experience all the positive changes in practice and patient outcomes that have been spearheaded by nurses, you realize that it’s a big deal to work in a Magnet institution and be a Magnet nurse.”

This year, 125 employees from Texas Children’s attended the Magnet Conference®. Next year’s conference will be held in Denver.

For nurses who were unable to attend the conference, click here to watch video highlights.

Nurses from across the country toured Texas Children’s during the week of the Nursing Conference.

Texas Children’s Cancer Center’s Making A Mark art exhibition is showing on The Auxiliary Bridge until Friday, October 27. Sponsored by the Periwinkle Foundation, this exhibit showcases more than 300 pieces of art created by young patients as well as larger-than-life pieces made in collaboration with local artist Jon Clark. The exhibit is in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month in September.

Patients worked with Jon Clark over the spring and summer while receiving treatment to create this year’s collaborative piece “Flourish” using repurposed medical supplies. Each year, Periwinkle invites a guest artist guides and curates a final piece of art for display. Clark joins a distinguished group of past guest artists, including Elaine Bradford, John Palmer, Kelly Gale Amen, Anat Ronen and Reginald Adams.

As a special feature of this year’s Making A Mark exhibit, select artwork has been paired with songs from Periwinkle Arts In Medicine partner, Purple Songs Can Fly. The songs were written by patients and siblings from Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Hematology Centers and can be found throughout the exhibit. Just look for a purple musical note!

October 10, 2017

More than a dozen employees recognized by the Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program got to watch the Houston Texans defeat the Tennessee Titans on October 1. The Texans-Titans game was sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital and celebrated the National Football League’s Play 60 campaign, which encourages children to be active 60 minutes a day to help decrease childhood obesity.

In honor of the Kids Day game, Drs. Charles D. Fraser Jr. and Daniel J. Penny, along with their patient Jack Guyre, served as Coin Toss Captains. The tickets to the game were one of the benefits of Texas Children’s Hospital being the official children’s hospital of the Houston Texans football team. The goal of Texas Children’s and the Texans partnership is to inspire children to lead healthier, more active lives.

Caught You Caring is a recognition program offered to patients and families, as well as staff, to recognize employees who have gone above and beyond their role to provide compassion and kindness to another person. This could be in the care of a patient, service to a family, or in support of a coworker.

Launched in 2015 in ambulatory surgery, the now system-wide program has recognized many employees, including the 13 listed below who were honored by the program this year and were chosen to receive the additional benefit of attending the Play 60 Texans game.

Experience Consultant with Family and Patient Services Maggie Weimer said being able to reward our Caught You Caring recipients in this way is truly amazing.

“Recognizing people for their hard work goes a long way when it comes to creating a positive work environment,” she said. “So many members of our Texas Children’s family go above and beyond each and every day for our patients, families and colleagues, and we appreciate that very much.”

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference. Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found throughout the Texas Children’s system for patients and families to fill out and recognize staff. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

Click here to learn more about the Caught You Caring Program.

Click the links below to read more about this year’s Play 60 ticket recipients and how they were caught caring.

Grace Collins
William Davidson
Joyce Enochs
Heather Eppleheimer
Dr. Yong Han
Roderic Johnson
Amanda Riddle
Sandy Rodriguez
Linda Santana
Keith Thomas
Debra Udombat
Donald Wilkins
Kevin Young

On October 2, Elsa, Texas Children’s first therapy dog, celebrated her one year anniversary at the hospital with patients and friends alike. The four-legged, full-time employee arrived in October 2016 and has brought smiles and comfort to patients, families, visitors and employees ever since.

To commemorate her special day, Elsa donned a “It’s my gotcha day!” t-shirt. She spent time greeting patients and guests, and received many cards from those who love her most. Patients also decorated new bows for Elsa’s collar and enjoyed cookies during the celebration.

Graciously funded by Judy and Bobby Shackouls, the golden retriever spends her days with her handler and Texas Children’s child life specialist, Sarah Herbek. The two collaborate with medical teams and physical and occupational therapists to provide support to patients who may be having trouble coping with hospital stays, a new diagnosis or other experiences.

Texas Children’s looks forward to celebrating many more milestones with Elsa.

Texas Children’s patients and families got the chance to visit NBC’s Sunday Night Football Bus October 6 ahead of the Houston Texans game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The bus included a player wall where children and adults could compare themselves to a real NFL player, a replica news desk for photo ops, Player of the Game balls signed by the players of each week’s game, the Super Bowl trophy and more.

TORO was on hand for the excitement, posing for photos and signing autographs.