Creating a good patient experience is the focus and mandate of the Chief Experience Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the world’s top-rated medical facilities. In this talk, Bridget Duffy shows the theory and practice of patient-centered care, including an on-stage demo of an innovative patient gown.
Posts Tagged ‘health’
Practical Empathy Skills in Healthcare
December 3rd, 2009Nursing Students Learn Empathy for the Aged
December 2nd, 2009From Daniel McBride of the Daily Comet in Thibodaux, Louisiana:
A tightly strapped vest restricts breathing. A weighted jumpsuit unbalances the wearer while pinching joints. Goggles blur vision.
Getting old can feel like this, nursing students tell people who regularly work with patients who are at least 65.
The Nicholls State University nursing faculty developed “Take a Walk in My Shoes,” which takes volunteer nursing students into the community at large to teach caregivers and others how to help and relate to elderly patients.
The tight vest and the bright yellow jumpsuit teaches the wearer about some of the problems her patients face every day.
“It’s not about making these people feel sorry for the older adults,” said Lacey Eschete, a 22-year-old from Thibodaux. “It’s about being empathetic.”
Empathy in Modern Medicine
November 23rd, 2009Just posted at the Marin Independent Journal from Dr. Dustin Ballard, in “How to avoid a ‘hardened’ heart”, he writes:
I think you’ll agree that medical care today is truly amazing – most of the time. One area, however, where the system struggles is in the practice of empathy – the acknowledgment and understanding of a patient’s physical and emotional condition. It’s not that we don’t understand the benefits of empathy; on the contrary, evidence shows that patients with empathetic physicians are more satisfied and more compliant with their treatment regimens. Rather, it’s that empathy, in comparison with the nuts and bolts of diagnosis and treatment, is underappreciated and undernurtured.
Dr. Ballard mentions a study where primary care physicians are given “mindful communication” training resulting in a measurable increase in empathic response and then, sadly for me, concludes this type of program is limited in feasibility and results. I would love to have read how Dr. Ballard reached that conclusion, since the quality and effectiveness of empathy training could easily be dependent upon who provides the training and what their approach and abilities might be. Nonetheless, Dr. Ballard’s call for more empathy in the medical community and beyond inspires a lot of hope and gratitude in me.
For an in-depth look at the humanization of health care in general, I recommend Mel Sears book (Mel is both and empathy trainer and an RN):
Humanizing Health Care with Nonviolent Communication
November 6th, 2009Book Review: Humanizing Health Care with Nonviolent Communication
The truth about health care: how hospital politics often prevents patients from getting the care they need.
Melanie Sears shares her insights as a nurse and a certified instructor of Nonviolent Communications as she gives a glimpse of what it’s like to work in a psychiatric hospital. There she experienced first-hand the pain and suffering of both patients and staff struggling within a system that makes compassionate care difficult to deliver. She also experienced the healing that’s possible when Nonviolent Communication is brought within a hospital’s walls.
Boston.com: Empathy promotes healing
August 10th, 2009A Healing Hope: Lessons from a WWII ghetto resonate with doctors today
In the Lodz ghetto in Poland, home to as many as 204,000 Jews during World War II, there were 170 doctors, as well as a few nurses and midwives, according to diaries and memoirs. Like all the others, the Jewish healers lived with the daily terror of being shipped off to a death camp.
