The Care Journal has thirty daily journal entries. Each entry consists of prompts that take the guesswork out of what information to remember.

Prompts include:

• Parking place
• Names of medical team on duty
• Daily goals
• Medications
• Surgery/procedures
• Diet
• Questions to ask
• Thoughts

The Care Journal also includes a brief description of how to use it, plus quick tips to help manage your hospital stay. The journal is easy to use and small enough to fit in a bag.

In July 2013, The Journal of Nursing Care Quality published an article called Implementation of the Josie King Care Journal in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: A Quality Improvement Project written by a team of medical specialists.

“The Care Journal is a tool developed by the Josie King Foundation to promote interactive exchange among providers and patients/families. The Care Journal was implemented in a pediatric intensive care unit, and surveys were administered to assess perceptions about use.”

To read the full article : JNCQ article

If you are a hospital

Our goal is for hospitals to partner with us in the Care Journal Campaign by making a donation to the Foundation. In return we will provide journals for the hospitals to present to their patients as a gift.There is often a disconnect that exists between patients and their caregivers. The Josie King Foundation’s goal in creating the Care Journal is to help bridge this gap. Often when a caregiver sees a patient or a patient’s loved one taking notes they view it as a threat, when in reality, the patient is just trying to stay organized.When the hospital hands the patient or the patient’s loved one a Care Journal upon admission it sends a positive message—“Here is a gift from us to you. We encourage you to keep track of information and to ask questions and most of all we invite you to partner with us in your care.”

If your organization is interested in including a special message to your patients along with the Care Journal, we have designed a personalized label to be placed on the back of the journal or a personalized bookmark to be inserted into the journal. The label or bookmark can be customized with your logo and special message from you to your patients and families.

We invite hospitals and medical practices to join us as Care Journal Partners.

If you are a patient
It is our hope that anybody who needs a Care Journal obtains a Care Journal. The Josie King Foundation will ship a Care Journal to any patient who needs one. If you find the Care Journal to be a helpful resource, we ask that you share the Care Journal with others, or make a donation of your choice to the Josie King Foundation. We welcome donations of any amount. The money raised from the Care Journals goes to support innovative patient safety programs throughout the country. Please email carejournal@josieking.org to request a Care Journal.