By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Should you bring a family member or friend with you when a patient has a doctor’s appointment? That is a question explored on a recent post on KevinMD by guest blogger, Diana E. Lee, a chronic migraine patient who blogs at Somebody Heal Me. “Most of the resources I’ve read about how to prepare for a doctor’s appointment recommend bringing a loved one with you so that person can…
Read More...Doctor-Patient Relationship: How Patients Can Help Enhance Communication
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA From Kevin Pho’s medical blog, KevinMD, a post archived from 2004, Pho talks about the struggles of communication between doctor and patient during the 15 minute office visit. Pho sites a NY Times article that explains that more than two decades ago, research shows that patients were interrupted 18 seconds into explaining their problem (on average) and less than 2 percent got to finish their explanations. Pho sites that…
Read More...Smoke-Free Hospitals and Patients
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Nurses and doctors and other members of the health care team strive every day to provide quality patient care. We focus on patients by understanding their needs. We listen, assess and evaluate. We work together as a team focusing not only on the patient, but family members as well. We formulate individual care plans addressing each and every need. Providing quality patient care is the single most important goal…
Read More...The Patient, Square in the Middle of Doctors’ Blind Spot
Guest Post By Alan Greene, MD Participatory Medicine and the e-Patient Right before our eyes there’s a dark hole in what we see. Not only don’t we see some of what’s right in front of our face, but we don’t even notice the gap. Our illusion of a seamless visual world is so strong that scientists used to think that the spot where our optic nerve enters the back of each eye gave us our…
Read More...Empathy for Family Members
From the Front Lines By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA As nurses we tend to focus on treating a patient’s illness and still show compassion. As a nurse I try to feel the surroundings. I try to sense not only what a patient is going through, but what the family goes through. And yes, I need to avoid being so intertwined with a patient that it becomes emotionally overwhelming. The key is to separate the…
Read More...