Patients Archives - Page 44 of 71

The Challenge of Bearing Witness to Patient and Family Suffering

“How do I honor this pain so that it teaches and blesses and does not destroy?”

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor

This month’s Reflections essay (“Why?“) is by a pediatric chaplain. As the title indicates, it’s about the questions we all ask in the face of suffering and loss. The precipitating event for the author is the baffled, enraged cry of a father who has lost a child, and her own struggles with the impossibility of giving an acceptable answer—to the child’s parents, or to herself as a daily witness of loss and suffering.

How does a chaplain, or for that matter a nurse, witness the pain of patients and their families time and again and keep from either shutting down or being overwhelmed by the stress and emotion? As we’re often reminded, self-care matters or there’s nothing to give the next time: yoga, gardening, humor, family, cooking, whatever works for a person. Is it enough? Yes, and no, says the author. Here’s an excerpt: […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:02:19-05:00July 8th, 2015|patient engagement, Patients|1 Comment

Surveys Aside, One Crucial Precondition for Real Patient Satisfaction

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN.

During this hospital stay, after you pressed the call button, how often did you get help as soon as you wanted it?
1. Never
2. Sometimes
3. Usually
4. Always
5. I never pressed the call button

Everyone is talking about patient satisfaction these days. Purposeful rounding, responsiveness, and customer service are discussed in meetings, on blogs, and in conversations at work. An entire science has been created out of satisfaction, with whole journals devoted to patient experience and paid officers tracking scores and strategies. Since hospital reimbursement is linked to how happy patients are, we’ve suddenly gotten serious about satisfaction.

But behind the sterile questions on the HCAHPS survey, real stories about real people reside. I find myself often forgetting the flesh and blood that’s represented by each checked box, and am learning to realize that, while satisfaction is something to be striven for, dissatisfaction is something to be learned from.

In a series of posts, starting with this one, I’ll share stories of my own missteps—ones that may have caused my patients to answer never instead of always to questions about my care. The events described here helped me realize that, score or no score, responding to call bells actually matters at the human level:

Sarah was […]

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Amanda Anderson, MPA, MSN, RN2016-11-21T13:02:20-05:00June 29th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|9 Comments

Soul-Satisfied, but Heartbroken: The ‘Soft’ Skills of Oncology Nurse Navigators

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, is an oncology nurse navigator and writes a monthly post for this blog. The illustration below is part of a series on mountains as barriers that she is working on.

Untitled oil stick & charcoal on paper by Julianna Paradisi

When I introduce myself to nurses as an oncology nurse navigator, they often respond, “Oh, that’s great,” staring blankly. Sometimes, in the midst of patient care, they say, “Yeah, that’s great, but I’m really busy. Come back later.”

Nurses caring for patients are really busy—so busy that this is one of the reasons the relatively new specialty of nurse navigators exists. Another reason is that oncology care is increasingly complex, and mostly occurs in the outpatient setting where vulnerable patients must fend for themselves.

Patient navigation was founded in 1990 by Harold P. Freeman at Harlem Hospital Center to improve outcomes for poverty-stricken African-American women presenting with stage III and IV breast cancer. Freeman declared, “The core function of patient navigation is the elimination of barriers to timely care across all segments of the healthcare continuum.”

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated patient navigation for oncology by 2015. No longer […]

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN2016-11-21T13:02:21-05:00June 22nd, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|0 Comments

Family Caregivers Increasing in Age, Numbers: How Can Nurses Help?

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

AJNFamilyCaregiverSupplement Last week, a new report from the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP detailed the landscape of family caregiving in the United States. The majority (60%) of caregivers remain female (40% are men, a percentage that continues to rise). They average 49 years of age. In most cases, they are caring for a relative (typically, a 69-year-old female). On average, the caregiver spends 24 hours each week helping with daily activities and has been doing so for four years; one-third of caregivers still maintain a full-time job.

An estimated 34.2 million adults provided unpaid care to an adult 50 years or older in the previous 12 months; nearly one in 10 caregivers is 75 years or older—a typical example given in the report was a 79-year-old female caring for a 77-year-old spouse with Alzheimer’s disease, aging issues, or heart disease. Half of caregivers were thrust into caregiving and felt that they had no choice about taking on the responsibility of a loved one’s care; 22% of caregivers feel that their own health has suffered.

To raise awareness of their needs, in recent years AARP has championed the plight of family caregivers, collaborating with government and consumer organizations, and health care professionals. AJN, too, has worked with AARP on several projects to provide nurses with information to support family […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2016-11-21T13:02:26-05:00June 10th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients, Public health|0 Comments

Nurses Aren’t Just Healers, They’re Teachers Too: A Patient’s View

A teeny red bump had mysteriously appeared on my left index finger. It hurt when I pressed on it. I figured it was nothing. . . .

That’s the start of the June Reflections essay in AJN, “Ms. Lisa and Ms. MRSA,” a patient experience narrative by freelance writer Shannon Harris. As luck would have it, the bump on her finger, it turns out, is not nothing. It’s MRSA.

The diagnosis takes a while. Finally the situation worsens, and surgery is needed. The author takes it all in stride, at least in retrospect:

The third physician stood out to me most. He asked to take a picture of my green and black, staph-infected finger with his iPhone. “Sure. Look at it! I thought this only happened to pirates,” I told him as he snapped away. He glanced at the young, button-nosed nurse standing beside him. “Don’t you want a picture? For your records?” he asked.

She shook her head, squinting and gritting her teeth. “I know. Yuck,” I said. I later shared photos of my infection journey online, to the great wonder and disgust of my friends and family. Before that, though, came surgery.

The author’s tone is light, but the situation is […]