For inspiration for my blog post this week, I have taken inspiration from another blog which uses the method “thinking differently” in order to think creatively about situations. It can be tempting (and let’s face it, easier) to talk about problems by recycling the same old solutions, but this method aims to start people thinking creatively and outside the box.
I opened a book on a random page and shut my eyes (honestly!) and I got the word “goal”. I then started to think about my placement in terms of this random word.
The first thing I thought of was the goal of everyone working in the hospital; for patient care. The team should be working together to improve patient care, from the receptionists welcoming the patients to the clinical staff going the extra mile. This week I collected some positive feedback from patients and put it up on a board in outpatients to thank the staff for reaching our goal of making sure patients are happy and comfortable in the department.
On one of my first weeks here I was in the office when a doctor came up from A&E to tell the divisional manager there was a problem. A patient had severely injured his own eye in self-harm whilst on the way to a psychiatric unit. The team around the patients care was extensive- the police, social worker, doctors, nurses, managers, theatre staff, psychiatrist, RAID nurses and the on call surgeon were all working for the goal of getting the patient to theatre and saving his eyesight. There were multiple complications but the team was motivated and went above and beyond to ensure that the patient had his emergency surgery and that goal was achieved.
However, this was an achievable goal in the near future, which would make the difference between saving the patients sight or losing it. The goal of “patient care” can get lost as it includes so many different things, it is difficult to define, and it does not have an end point, and gets lost in the reality of the day-to-day routine. Getting the A&E patient into emergency theatre was a short term goal with a clear outcome and was therefore easier to define compared to the woolly “patient care”. For example, if a patient chooses to stop eating which may result in harm, should the nurse force the patient to eat? What if a family wants to deny telling the patient the truth about a medical condition? The goal now seems a bit more confusing….
First Published on 28/11/12 on the SWBH Website
I opened a book on a random page and shut my eyes (honestly!) and I got the word “goal”. I then started to think about my placement in terms of this random word.
The first thing I thought of was the goal of everyone working in the hospital; for patient care. The team should be working together to improve patient care, from the receptionists welcoming the patients to the clinical staff going the extra mile. This week I collected some positive feedback from patients and put it up on a board in outpatients to thank the staff for reaching our goal of making sure patients are happy and comfortable in the department.
On one of my first weeks here I was in the office when a doctor came up from A&E to tell the divisional manager there was a problem. A patient had severely injured his own eye in self-harm whilst on the way to a psychiatric unit. The team around the patients care was extensive- the police, social worker, doctors, nurses, managers, theatre staff, psychiatrist, RAID nurses and the on call surgeon were all working for the goal of getting the patient to theatre and saving his eyesight. There were multiple complications but the team was motivated and went above and beyond to ensure that the patient had his emergency surgery and that goal was achieved.
However, this was an achievable goal in the near future, which would make the difference between saving the patients sight or losing it. The goal of “patient care” can get lost as it includes so many different things, it is difficult to define, and it does not have an end point, and gets lost in the reality of the day-to-day routine. Getting the A&E patient into emergency theatre was a short term goal with a clear outcome and was therefore easier to define compared to the woolly “patient care”. For example, if a patient chooses to stop eating which may result in harm, should the nurse force the patient to eat? What if a family wants to deny telling the patient the truth about a medical condition? The goal now seems a bit more confusing….
First Published on 28/11/12 on the SWBH Website
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