The Very Important Partner program: integrating family and friends into the health care experience

The hospital experience, especially in critical care units, can be perceived by patients and their family as unwelcoming, intimidating, and anxiety producing. Patients desire the presence of loved ones and family members and may commonly express feelings of helplessness and not feeling valued or important. The Very Important Partner (VIP) program integrates family and friends into the health care experience in order to create an environment that provides opportunities for patients and their loved ones to truly experience healing of the mind, body, and spirit. Patient satisfaction survey results and anecdotal comments demonstrate that the VIP program has a significantly positive effect on the perception of the overall hospital stay. The program is a simple, common sense approach to optimizing the overall healing of patients and family. The implementation of similar programs is recommended in hospitals nationwide.