https://www.google.com.au/
There are quite a few related resources below the video on the link above.
The second one brought tears to my eyes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e1JxPCDme4
This article, summarising a patient experience and innovation summit, has some great ideas and insights:
http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/innovating-the-patient-experience-with-empathy-a-recap-of-cleveland-clinic-s-summit.html
And the two links within this article are also great
http://www.communicatewithheart.org/Newsroom.aspx
as is the video on the Cleveland Clinic Experience.
This is a powerful and touching video.
https://www.google.com.au/
I used to think I empathised with patients and practiced
patient-centred care before I became a patient myself. The perspective
is completely different on the other side, as many of you know from
your own experiences. When you're very unwell, or in pain, or in
shock, or worried about your known or unknown diagnosis, or simply
exhausted, it's very hard to take in all the information you're given
by well-meaning clinicians. I discovered that my familiarity with the
conditions I saw as a neuropsychologist possibly made me less aware of
how unfamiliar, frightening, and overwhelming the experience of being
a patient was for my patients. I maintained what I hoped was a
supportive yet cheerful disposition, not knowing that I would
experience being on the receiving end of similar approaches, and
finding that it made it harder for me to express my feelings and
concerns, and to ask questions. I didn't want to be a difficult
patient. I found the cheerful, competent clinical facade difficult to
penetrate as a patient. I still do, and I'm reasonably well-informed
and assertive. Imagine how it is for people with poor health literacy,
cognitive impairment, ESL, acute illness, pain…
I don't think there's one answer to the problem - perhaps one solution
would be to sit beside the bed-bound patient, rather than looking down
at them, and asking them how they really feel, what they're
experiencing, and if they have any questions or concerns that haven't
been addressed yet. And doing the same for all our patients. Our
efficiency and expertise and need to remain dispassionate and
objective with our patients can inadvertently create distance between
us and the patients we are trying to help. Maybe we need to remember
to break down that barrier with every patient we see, to create a
bridge that allows them to convey their fears, hopes, and questions,
so that we can inform and reassure them from their space as a patient,
not ours as clinicians who have seen it many times before. Many of you
are probably doing this already - I thought I was, but being a patient
was a big wake-up call to realise all the things I could have done
better.
