Developing the Skill of Gracious Caregiving
Healthcare professionals are taught to use many tools in our medical training-phlebotomy, nebulizer administration, blood pressure measurements, and ways to roll a stretcher through a doorway without scraping the paint (an art that eluded me as a candy striper, but didn’t thwart me in the pinnacle of doctorhood). However, we oftentimes overlook an important tool inside our medical arsenal-the skill of gracious caregiving.
Speaker for doctors
Among my greatest role models in medical school was obviously a junior faculty from physical diagnosis class, the initial course that people actually touched live patients. He insisted that we treat our patients with graciousness, giving them ownership of the hospital rooms as well as their bodies.
“You are able to afford to become gracious,” he was quoted saying. “You are fully clothed, your butt is not exposed, you got a good night’s sleep, ate everything you wanted for breakfast, and you’re not in pain or frightened.”
“So be gracious. Knock on their own door, and order permission to penetrate. Introduce yourself, and state your purpose. Explain what you're planning to do in order to them. Require permission to examine them. Explain everything you found. Describe the tests that they are likely to have and the things they will demonstrate. Bring them aboard like a partner in their own personal heath care.”
“When you exit, say goodbye. Thank them. Not only that, question them when they would like their door opened or shut. It’s the little controls you are able to post you to your patients that restore power as well as lowering their feelings of helplessness.”
The lesson I learned that day provided me with all the tool of gracious caregiving. The definition of ‘gracious’, according to the American Heritage® Dictionary from the English Language, includes kindness and warm courtesy, tact and propriety, plus a merciful or compassionate nature. We generally think about gracious in association with a party’s host. You probably know how to be gracious; you do it constantly when you entertain guests (while not necessarily close personal friends; they're left to scrounge up food for themselves).
So, how do you turn into a gracious caregiver? Follow these simple tips together with your ill ‘guests’, gleaned from rules of hosting parties and adapted to medical caregiving:
Eight tips for being a gracious caregiver:
• Greet your invited guests with enthusiasm
• Introduce yourself any time you obtain them until they invite you in by name. Remember your advantage-their name is on their wrist, about the chart, and also on the doorway. Offer to offer them your card or write down your name. The recurrent hospital guest will have a guest book so that you can sign.
• Explain your role in their care; usually do not assume that they are medically savvy. Then, explain inside a detailed fashion what they're planning to experience.
• Introduce them to any HCP who enters the space while you are there, giving your guest the advantage. Say, “Mrs. Guest, may I introduce Dr. Pulmonary?”
• Never talk over or around your guest without involving them inside the conversation. Excuse yourself if medically appropriate to discuss another guest’s personal business.
• Give able guests small tasks to undertake, including self-care, carrying their record during transport, even assisting in monitoring their own vital signs and I/Os.
• Always ask permission to touch or adjust unless it is an actual emergency. We flick back covers having a casual air, but ferociously guard our very own modesty.
• Give your guest governance within their room-over bed position, their door, and their possessions.
Ask permission to go in. Remember our advantage. You ate breakfast; the sofa is not exposed. We take much as a given in our treatment in our guests. You can pay for to become gracious.
Humorous medical motivational speaker Patricia Raymond MD resuscitates the joy in medicine and guides physicians and nurses to learn to play nicely in our shared medical sandbox. Author of Don’t Jettison Medicine: Resuscitate Your Passion for your Career You Loved, Dr. Raymond is the right remedy to create your hospital healthy. Book Dr. Raymond for your forthcoming hospital event or medical convention; get information at www.RxForSanity.com. ‘Like’ Dr. Raymond on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rxforsanity, and follow her funny health tweets @PatriciaRaymond
Speaker for doctors
Speaker for doctors
Among my greatest role models in medical school was obviously a junior faculty from physical diagnosis class, the initial course that people actually touched live patients. He insisted that we treat our patients with graciousness, giving them ownership of the hospital rooms as well as their bodies.
“You are able to afford to become gracious,” he was quoted saying. “You are fully clothed, your butt is not exposed, you got a good night’s sleep, ate everything you wanted for breakfast, and you’re not in pain or frightened.”
“So be gracious. Knock on their own door, and order permission to penetrate. Introduce yourself, and state your purpose. Explain what you're planning to do in order to them. Require permission to examine them. Explain everything you found. Describe the tests that they are likely to have and the things they will demonstrate. Bring them aboard like a partner in their own personal heath care.”
“When you exit, say goodbye. Thank them. Not only that, question them when they would like their door opened or shut. It’s the little controls you are able to post you to your patients that restore power as well as lowering their feelings of helplessness.”
The lesson I learned that day provided me with all the tool of gracious caregiving. The definition of ‘gracious’, according to the American Heritage® Dictionary from the English Language, includes kindness and warm courtesy, tact and propriety, plus a merciful or compassionate nature. We generally think about gracious in association with a party’s host. You probably know how to be gracious; you do it constantly when you entertain guests (while not necessarily close personal friends; they're left to scrounge up food for themselves).
So, how do you turn into a gracious caregiver? Follow these simple tips together with your ill ‘guests’, gleaned from rules of hosting parties and adapted to medical caregiving:
Eight tips for being a gracious caregiver:
• Greet your invited guests with enthusiasm
• Introduce yourself any time you obtain them until they invite you in by name. Remember your advantage-their name is on their wrist, about the chart, and also on the doorway. Offer to offer them your card or write down your name. The recurrent hospital guest will have a guest book so that you can sign.
• Explain your role in their care; usually do not assume that they are medically savvy. Then, explain inside a detailed fashion what they're planning to experience.
• Introduce them to any HCP who enters the space while you are there, giving your guest the advantage. Say, “Mrs. Guest, may I introduce Dr. Pulmonary?”
• Never talk over or around your guest without involving them inside the conversation. Excuse yourself if medically appropriate to discuss another guest’s personal business.
• Give able guests small tasks to undertake, including self-care, carrying their record during transport, even assisting in monitoring their own vital signs and I/Os.
• Always ask permission to touch or adjust unless it is an actual emergency. We flick back covers having a casual air, but ferociously guard our very own modesty.
• Give your guest governance within their room-over bed position, their door, and their possessions.
Ask permission to go in. Remember our advantage. You ate breakfast; the sofa is not exposed. We take much as a given in our treatment in our guests. You can pay for to become gracious.
Humorous medical motivational speaker Patricia Raymond MD resuscitates the joy in medicine and guides physicians and nurses to learn to play nicely in our shared medical sandbox. Author of Don’t Jettison Medicine: Resuscitate Your Passion for your Career You Loved, Dr. Raymond is the right remedy to create your hospital healthy. Book Dr. Raymond for your forthcoming hospital event or medical convention; get information at www.RxForSanity.com. ‘Like’ Dr. Raymond on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rxforsanity, and follow her funny health tweets @PatriciaRaymond
Speaker for doctors