When a child or newborn becomes critically ill, every moment matters. For families living in rural, remote, and northern communities across Alberta, access to specialized pediatric and neonatal care can be limited by geography, resources, and distance. At the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, our Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Outreach Program is working to change that.

Our program is built on a simple belief: no matter where a child lives, they deserve access to high-quality, timely care. By bringing expert knowledge and practical skills directly to healthcare teams across the province, we help ensure that critically ill infants and children receive the best possible care, from the very first moments.

From the ICU to the Community: Supporting Teams Before Crises Occur

Our outreach work focuses on proactive education and support. We don’t wait for emergencies to happen. Instead, our team of pediatric and neonatal intensive care specialists, including intensive care physicians, critical care transport nurses, respiratory therapists, and simulation educators, travels to hospitals and health centers throughout Alberta.

Our transport team members bring valuable frontline experience from caring for critically ill children and newborns in high-pressure, time-sensitive situations. By sharing their practical insights and lessons learned, they work alongside rural teams to build local capacity and strengthen confidence in managing critical situations. Together, we focus on preparing for rare but high-stakes events—such as neonatal resuscitation, pediatric respiratory failure, difficult vascular access, and post-resuscitation care—while ensuring that education remains practical, relevant, and tailored to each team’s specific realities and resources.

Above all, our goal is to collaborate, not to replace or direct care. We recognize that rural teams bring deep knowledge of their patients, their communities, and the realities of delivering care in diverse settings. Our role is to offer additional specialized expertise and support when it’s needed most, working together to ensure that every child receives the best possible care, regardless of their location.

Enhancing the Use of Virtual Health

Virtual health has long been part of our care model, allowing rural healthcare providers to connect in real-time with our PICU and NICU teams through video consultations. These virtual connections allow for immediate visual assessment, facilitate collaborative decision-making, and provide specialized guidance, thereby bridging the gap between distance and timely critical care.

In recent years, we have dedicated new resources to expanding the number of sites actively utilizing virtual health and to enhancing the system to make it more accessible and user-friendly. Through outreach education and ongoing collaboration, we help teams understand when and how to activate virtual health support, and we work alongside them to identify barriers and co-create solutions that enhance the process. By integrating virtual care into both educational and clinical workflows, we aim to ensure that this valuable tool is familiar, efficient, and readily available when needed most.

Partnerships That Strengthen the System

At its heart, our outreach program is about relationships. We work alongside healthcare teams, not above them. By building trust and fostering ongoing communication, we create partnerships that extend beyond one-off education sessions.

These relationships also allow us to better understand systemic challenges. We see firsthand the impact of staffing shortages, equipment limitations, and the need for ongoing skill development. Armed with this knowledge, we can advocate for change not only within individual sites but also across the broader healthcare system.

Looking Forward: Innovation for Sustainable Impact

As we continue to grow, we are exploring new ways to expand our reach and impact. This includes:

• Increasing the use of virtual health for more frequent support and consultation.

• Developing o2n-demand, digital education tools to supplement in-person learning.

• Collaborating with provincial networks to align efforts and share best practices in pediatric and neonatal resuscitation and emergency care. 

The true measure of our program’s success isn’t just the number of kilometres travelled, or sessions delivered. It’s found in the quiet moments: a nurse who confidently aids in the resuscitation of a newborn because she practiced it in simulation; a rural physician who feels supported during a complex case; a family who receives life-saving care without the delays of distance.

Through innovation, compassion, and collaboration, we are transforming how care is delivered, ensuring that geography never stands in the way of a child’s chance to thrive.

Our outreach program is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, which provides the funding for this vital work. Their commitment ensures that we can continue to bring critical care closer to home for Alberta’s children and families, one community at a time.