How to Give Quality Medical Care

1. How to Give Quality MedicalCare By Kirsten Morrise

2. The Five Important Areas of Medical Care (are)- • Environment • Patient • Condition (illness) • Care Provider (you) • Technique

3. Environment • The environment in a hospital can affect people’s emotions which can sometimes set off a trigger to their health • Be sensitive to the fact your volume level can greatly affect your patients’ anxiety level which may make them later need additional care and be sensitive to the fact that they can usually hear everything you say outside their room if you’re speaking too loud • Make the patients’ environment as comfortable as possible. When a patient is comfortable it makes it easier for them to deal with pain and easier for you to do your job

4. Patient • The relationship you make with the patient you provide care for and that patient’s family should be at a professional boundary • Learn more about your patient, talk with them but don’t neglect the medical assessments (poking, blood pressure checking, monitoring, etc) that they require because you don’t want hurt them. It’s not like you should want to hurt them but in the long run these assessments will help them stay stable or regain stability. It helps if when before you do these assessments you make it clear to your patient that you’re not trying to scare them or hurt them in any way • Don’t treat your patient like he or she is in Kindergarten. You may be trying to get closer to them and show them you care, but sometimes it can scare or freak them out, so instead of them drawing closer to you and wanting to make your acquaintance, they just want you to give them space

5. Condition (illness) • Everybody is different and so people’s conditions can come up in and can be treated differently. Don’t think that because you had a previous patient that had the same type of condition as your current patient, that you know the exact way that the current patient should be treated, medicated, or handled. (etc.) • In the medical field research goes a long way. If you’re not sure how you should treat a patient with a certain condition it helps to research that condition and so then you have a better view on what might be the best treatment and you are more prepared. • Don’t make a big deal out of somebody’s illness when you learn about its existence in a patient. It creates stress and makes it harder to maintain a certain amount of communication. Overall it just makes it harder for the person to whom you’re talking to keep calm, and for you to efficiently do your job.

6. Care Provider (you) • You are a care provider for your patient because you have medical expertise. You do not have complete authority over the patient -- only authority of medical assistance. A family member that they might live with or even the patient their self will provide discipline etc. It’s not your job to see to it that your patient takes responsibility for his/her own actions, your job is to monitor their health • You may not know much about your patient, don’t be afraid to ask. Asking about things like, how they handle pain, what works best for them in certain situations, if they like liquid or pills for medicine etc. These questions might not seem like much but usually the people who are answering these questions (the patient or a guardian) see them simply as a caring gesture. It never hurts to ask. • Keep in mind that a medical license is not a license to be arrogant. You need to take responsibility for your own actions and not antagonize another colleague by saying you’re better than them. Some types of care providing require teamwork and teamwork requires the ability to be humble and ethical.

7. Technique • There are different techniques in medical care so everyone does things differently and that’s okay. As long as you truly do your best it will help you in the long run. If do your best then you will be respected by many people. • Care providing is a difficult task that requires countless hours of training, sleepless nights, good social skills, and so much more. But there are a few good rewards that come and you learn more about yourself, more about the world, and you get a feeling of accomplishment from it. • One very helpful tool in care providing is Empathy. Empathy is very important in care providing because when you put yourself in your patients’ shoes you realize how lucky you are to not need that type of care and how much they deserve quality care from you. Using Empathy in this kind of situation makes you realize that you have the power to make someone’s life a little better than it was the day before you met them.

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