Ok so I’ve been in hospital ten days just now and a few things occur to me that maybe aren’t obvious to staff who work in hospital. First thing is sure this is your place of work but right now it is where I am living. You might think letting doors slam or dropping things etc is not a big deal but unexpected noises set tension in patients. Where you talk is important too, I understand that nurses, doctors etc need to talk to communicate things to each other but if you stand outside my door and talk about things it does two things one it constantly reminds me that I am not safe because anyone could come in at any time and two that I am not in my home I am in an alien place with different rules.
I think I am a pretty good patient, I don’t buzz for help unless it is something I can’t do myself or that I need to tell someone about (pain, bleeding dizziness etc) This however can lead to me being forgotten about, there is nothing wrong with every once in a while chapping on the door poking your head in and asking how things are. Remember patients are humans and like all humans we even the most anti social need contact with humans to maintain our sanity.
If I say that for handling the change of one of my IV drugs (steroids) to oral pills that you should speak to a specific consultant in my medical team don’t come back and tell me you spoke to a different department, I am telling you because they are the dr who handles them long term to me. Also when I tell you to speak to him before the surgery and a week later you still haven’t done it and your plan is to dump me back straight onto my maintenance dose don’t expect me to sugar coat it. I am a nice person and will speak to you civilly but when you don’t do your job after I have asked multiple times my tongue will sharpen, it might be numbers to you but it’s my life we are talking about.
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In contrast to this my stays in my local hospital’s (same hospital) combined assessment unit this year has been vastly different and I understand that the norm for them is to have a patient for 24-48 hrs before moving them onto a ward but as I was suspected of having flu and was neutropenic so needed a side room on Infectious diseases ward (like winning the lottery). So I was kept in CAU for 4 and 3 days respectively, even though I was ‘infective’ people always checked in to make sure I was ok and if I needed anything. When it came to discharge they asked me about how I usually stepped down my steroids, because guess what I’ve been doing it for 17 years I know what I am doing. I was treated like a human, never treated like an idiot and though isolated never ignored.
Since rediscovering this post which I had half finished I had a short talk with a Junior Doc. The doctor was talking about a more senior Doc whom they admired in their service and it was interesting that the things they admired most where not the ‘hard’ skills like intubation or knowledge of dosages of drugs to give or catching a condition from a patients strange symptoms. It was the soft skills, their ability to speak to a patients family in a way that soothed their distress, calming a patient who was troubled by not knowing where they where or dealing with other Docs to exchange ideas and try to get to bottom of patients problems.
As a person who has been a patient in hospital on and off for 17 years having spent what probably totals at least 2-3 years in hospital I can tell you one thing: Soft skills matter. Unless you are one of the best in your field where your excellence might allow you more leeway than otherwise, you need to be able to talk to patients and their family. You need to be able to speak in a language they understand and gauge the level at which you need to speak, ie. I understand more technical medical language than the normal person due to my exposure, so often they speak to me in a more ‘medical’ way but that’s not suitable for everyone.
As a medical professional whether it be a Doctor, nurse, physio, pharmacist or support staff in a hospital with inpatients you need to make them feel safe and included in there medical treatment. This is easier to achieve than you might expect as often simply speaking to the patient and explaining why you are doing x is enough. If you are unsure what to do think what would you want if you where in the bed and often you will have the answer. When a patient gets discharged they won’t remember who came up with a diagnosis or who got that tricky cannula in or who did x procedure. They will often remember the Doctor who took 10 minutes to explain what is wrong with them or what the treatment is for or what the test results tell them.
So basically in short never underestimate the power of speaking to a patient, you might change their stay from a scary experience to one they feel they have at least some control over.
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In contrast to this my stays in my local hospital’s (same hospital) combined assessment unit this year has been vastly different and I understand that the norm for them is to have a patient for 24-48 hrs before moving them onto a ward but as I was suspected of having flu and was neutropenic so needed a side room on Infectious diseases ward (like winning the lottery). So I was kept in CAU for 4 and 3 days respectively, even though I was ‘infective’ people always checked in to make sure I was ok and if I needed anything. When it came to discharge they asked me about how I usually stepped down my steroids, because guess what I’ve been doing it for 17 years I know what I am doing. I was treated like a human, never treated like an idiot and though isolated never ignored.
Since rediscovering this post which I had half finished I had a short talk with a Junior Doc. The doctor was talking about a more senior Doc whom they admired in their service and it was interesting that the things they admired most where not the ‘hard’ skills like intubation or knowledge of dosages of drugs to give or catching a condition from a patients strange symptoms. It was the soft skills, their ability to speak to a patients family in a way that soothed their distress, calming a patient who was troubled by not knowing where they where or dealing with other Docs to exchange ideas and try to get to bottom of patients problems.
As a person who has been a patient in hospital on and off for 17 years having spent what probably totals at least 2-3 years in hospital I can tell you one thing: Soft skills matter. Unless you are one of the best in your field where your excellence might allow you more leeway than otherwise, you need to be able to talk to patients and their family. You need to be able to speak in a language they understand and gauge the level at which you need to speak, ie. I understand more technical medical language than the normal person due to my exposure, so often they speak to me in a more ‘medical’ way but that’s not suitable for everyone.
As a medical professional whether it be a Doctor, nurse, physio, pharmacist or support staff in a hospital with inpatients you need to make them feel safe and included in there medical treatment. This is easier to achieve than you might expect as often simply speaking to the patient and explaining why you are doing x is enough. If you are unsure what to do think what would you want if you where in the bed and often you will have the answer. When a patient gets discharged they won’t remember who came up with a diagnosis or who got that tricky cannula in or who did x procedure. They will often remember the Doctor who took 10 minutes to explain what is wrong with them or what the treatment is for or what the test results tell them.
So basically in short never underestimate the power of speaking to a patient, you might change their stay from a scary experience to one they feel they have at least some control over.
