Identify & promote strategies & tools to support patient centered care and it's impacts...

Strategies to Support Patient Centered Care

Educate staff about cultural/health beliefs, practices and mores of specific ethical & cultural groups in patient population. Develop comprehensive planning focused on needs of cultural, as well as diagnostic, groups of patients. Develop nursing and clinical interview protocols that elicit patients' perceptions about their illness & their expectations of treatment. Develop explicit and culturally appropriate expectations & standards regarding staff behavior with patients (i.e. form of address, knocking on doors, rules of propriety. Educate staff to ask, not assume: to ask patients what they want to know, to suggest questions that patients might have, to ask patients if they understand, etc. Consider giving patients access to medical records, if they want it, and make sure knowledgeable staff are available to encourage questions and to discuss records with them. Reexamine institutional routines that force patients into passive compliance; wherever possible, let patients do and control as much as they can on their own. Educate staff to ask, not assume, how therapeutic decisions affect patients' lives and what patients' preferences would be among alternative treatments and outcomes. Educate clinical staff to negotiate therapeutic strategies with patients.

Tools to Support Patient Centered Care

PATIENT EDUCATION. Institutions can implement patient education programs that are interactive with emphasis on emotional factors that hinder or promote healthy behaviors. Need addressed = patients want to feel more self reliant. PROGRAMS TO ACCESS INFORMATIONAL RESOURCES. Providers can enhance patient education/experience by making a broad variety of educational resources accessible to patients and their families (i.e. internet, library, medical records - my chart, etc.). Need addressed = patients want to have a better understanding of their care. PAIN MANAGEMENT. Programs that rate and chart pain during cycle of care. Staff education on pain management that includes alternatives to pain such as use of PCA's. Need addressed = patients rate pain control as important. PHYSICAL SPACE. Hospitals should do whatever is possible to improve lighting, color & space design so that patients are as comfortable as possible. Need addressed = patients want space personalized to give them more identity during care. EMOTIONAL SUPPORT PROGRAMS. Provider can implement relaxation programs, provide audio visual entertainment, implement protocol to encourage staff to review emotional concerns, facilitate access to patient support groups, etc. Need addressed = patients want to have their esteem bolstered (strong emotional support is documented as curative). FAMILY SUPPORT. Hospitals can have protocols/programs in place that allow families: (1)  to get information easily; (2) participate in care if desired, (3) be involved in discharge process, (4) get emotional support for themselves if needed. Need addressed = family support is very important to patients and overall family caregivers spend more time with patients than other providers. CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION. Providers can implement programs to improve cross cultural communications (i.e. LEARN = Listen, Explain, Acknowledge, Recommend, Negotiate). Need addressed = patients expressed desire to improve communication.