Improving the Patient Experience - Empathy is Basic but Forgotten

Each patient enters the healthcare space with one goal: to get better. It seems like a simple request but one that has a broad set of exasperating variables depending on the patient's specific needs. For some, it is the simple (or not so simple) healing of the body, including the mind, as part of the human machine. For others, it is a series of trips to different facilities just to get a diagnosis. To fulfill this goal, everyone will require new knowledge to accomplish the task. In my experience, I have found that we, as healthcare workers, are good at supplying information to patients and caregivers, but we are not very good at providing knowledge, which are two very different sides of the same coin. It is interesting that your ability to acquire, understand and utilize this knowledge directly affects your morbidity and mortality. How can we improve this process for our patients? At this point, you can simply grab your smartphone and open it to any piece of information you want to share with your patient. The supply of information is not the challenge at hand.

Even as a healthcare professional, there is a niche of knowledge and vernacular at your disposal that is specific to your field. Attend the provider meetings at your facility and have a conversation with your neurologist or oncologist about diagnosing a patient; I assure you each of us has our language. As a patient going through this experience without the years of training and familiarity of a facility, how can we expect them to be able to communicate with us? As they reach the end of admission, the patient will be tired, frustrated and confused in most cases. As patient care advocates, we have the opportunity to give the little bit of support that no smartphone, computer, or laptop can provide. The wonderful yet basic human experience of empathy for the patient's situation.

It's clear that empathy tends to be lost in the American healthcare patient experience. We, as healthcare workers, are accustomed to the sick, injured and dying. It is part of life for us, just like pouring concrete or opening brokerage accounts every day for another. The challenge is we exist in a service industry regardless of whether we recognize it or not. The small things that make a patient's day a little easier can dramatically impact that person's ability to improve their health. It can be life-changing to spend the extra 10 minutes educating your newly diagnosed diabetic and allowing them to express their fears over losing their favorite foods. It can bring hope to a patient who has received a new cancer diagnosis if you spend that extra 10 minutes walking them through the options. It can bring support to your fellow nurses, providers, or support staff to acknowledge it’s a hard day, but we can get through it together.

In the current American culture, where attention is short and distractions are high, take that moment to reconnect to your human nature before putting on the scrubs or coat to slog through another day. Remember why you are at the patient's bedside each day. The patients need to know they are not just another number or bed to be turned. Be in their shoes as soon as you walk in. Fall back in love with your passion for healthcare and then share it with your community. It makes a difference.