As a nurse for almost thirty years, I’ve spent time on the clinician’s side of the stethoscope and as a healthcare consumer. I’ve recently had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time as a patient, and from my perspective, the patient experience is often sadly lacking. Is this how it really needs to be?
It’s Never Fun to be a Patient
No one expects the experience of being a patient to be fun, but we have the right to hope that it’s as positive as possible; unfortunately, for many recipients of care, it’s frequently the opposite.
One aspect of being a healthcare consumer that can be most maddening is the hours of time spent waiting for things to happen. We wait to see the provider. We’re stalled in the emergency room waiting area. We wait for our IV to be started. We wait for the test results. We wait to be discharged. It’s a waiting game, and the number of idle hours can drive us to extreme boredom, frustration, and occasionally anger.
When we’re kept waiting, it’s the lack of information about when things may or may not happen that can make it worse. Besides “the doctor will be with you soon,” no one can tell us when we’ll be seen. You may ask, “When will they start my IV and take me for my MRI?” You’ll be told that it will be “soon.” If you ask how long it may take for the results to be read and made available, you’re told, “It depends on how backed up the radiologists are.” If you’re waiting to be discharged from the hospital, what time you’ll be able to leave is anyone’s guess since one hand often doesn’t know what the other hand is doing.
Information is power, and the lack of information can be supremely disempowering. As you wait in your luxurious ER-curtained half-room, the hours pass with excruciating slowness.
It’s never fun to be a patient, and being left in the timeless dark — hungry, bored, thirsty, and without information — can be an awful moment in time.
Losing Touch
In far too many provider-patient encounters, the art of communication is lost, seemingly forgotten in the rush of things to do. We stare at our computer screens and fail to make eye contact. Doctors see patients in rushed 15-minute appointments, often without a cursory physical exam.
In an article titled, “Can Hospitality Cure the Woes of Healthcare?” published in February of 2024 on DailyNurse.com, healthcare and hospitality expert Peter Yesawich stated, “Can you think of any healthcare experience you’ve had that’s gone wrong? According to our research, most adults can. It’s interesting to note the culprit is rarely the clinical outcome. Rather, it’s generally how the care was delivered.”
And if, as Forbes reports, as many as 60% of patients report having had a recent negative experience in the healthcare realm, something is gravely amiss. The article states: “Overall, just 40% of those surveyed rated the quality of healthcare in the United States as very good or good, down six percentage points since March 2022 and nearly 20 points from the high-water mark in March 2020. The current results are the lowest ratings of U.S. healthcare quality since the survey began in December 2019.”
Hospital Gown Blues
If patients are unhappy and healthcare workers are burned out, many questions must be asked. When focusing specifically on the patient experience, there are plenty of things to ponder, especially since many of us should be able to relate to both sides of the equation.
We can ask ourselves how patients are greeted in our facility, whether it’s an outpatient provider office or an acute care hospital ER. Do we make patients feel welcome? Do they feel seen as real human beings with real needs?
When we walk into the exam room, do we make sure the patient knows who we are and what our title and purpose is?
Do we give our patients the information they need to understand how things will progress? If their wait time elongates, do we reassure them that we know they’re still waiting? Do we offer our patients food, water, reading materials, a pillow, a warm blanket, or anything else to help them feel more comfortable and cared for? Do we apologize for their wait and acknowledge their discomfort, suffering, boredom, or pain?
In my recent ER experience, I was offered no reassurance as the hours dragged on. Were there water or snacks for a hungry, tired, and bored patient? Was a pillow or blanket made available? Did anyone acknowledge that the hours were passing and nothing was happening?
Being in patient limbo is a terrible experience. When the patient is shivering in a thin hospital gown with no knowledge of when they will ever be processed and finally discharged, the sense of humanity in healthcare flies out the proverbial window.
Both Sides of the Equation
Healthcare is in crisis. Nurses are leaving in droves, burnout is widespread, costs are skyrocketing, and patients are unhappy. We can do better, and patients can receive better care.
Most of us who work in healthcare are also experienced as patients, so we’re not strangers to the challenges of the wafer-thin hospital gown and the endless waiting game.
As we go about our daily tasks on the provider end of the stethoscope, let’s remember what it’s like on the receiving end. There are humans on both sides of this equation, and we can absolutely manage to inject much more humanity into the mix.
- Is It Time to Quit Your Nursing Job? - December 5, 2024
- What Does Nursing Look Like to You? - November 25, 2024
- Rehumanizing the Patient Experience - November 18, 2024
