Patient-advocates can help hospitals deal with angry family
members
When people are anxious or
angry, they may not be able to make sense of what a doctor is saying. When
tempers run high, they find it difficult to express their most pressing
concerns. Strong emotions can make processing new or complex medical
information more difficult. What can be done in such a scenario?
Get a patient-advocate on
board. Hospitals are stress-inducing places for all the right and wrong
reasons. Patients and family members may experience a sense of loss of control
in such an unfamiliar environment. They often do not understand a lot of what
is going on and may feel vulnerable, helpless and stripped of all their rights
and options. However this is a wrong perception. Even in hospitals, patients
have rights, as well as, responsibilities. It’s the advocate’s responsibility
to make them understand both.
Intense anger or anxiety
can get in the way of good treatment and care. Once an 80-year-old patient was
scheduled to undergo surgery for prostate cancer. He and his wife arrived on
time for their early morning surgery. The nurse at the reception told them that
the surgery was delayed until the afternoon. By mid-afternoon, they were told
that — due to several unexpected emergencies — the surgery had to be postponed
to the next day.
Already
anxious about the upcoming surgery, the patient and his wife got so angry, they
were ready to walk out of the hospital in a huff, but were calmed down by a
patient-advocate. Yet the patient couldn’t sleep two winks that night, kept
tossing and turning on his bed and his wife, who was even angrier, seemed to complain
about everything in the room, including the AC, the water tap, and the cleaner.
The next day, when the patient-advocate turned up for his visit with the
couple, the wife pounced on him with the words, “Please tell us how to get out
of this hospital?”
Maintaining
his cool, the advocate smiled, patted the woman’s hand gently and said, “Why
don’t you tell me what can I do to help you get through this tough day?”
That
immediately calmed down the two and the wife began to slowly confess her fears
and frustrations to the advocate. The advocate also took his time, explaining
why surgeries have to be postponed when more serious cases arrive, and
requesting them to be a little more understanding and patient with the hospital
staff.
The fact
is that while hospitals are familiar places for doctors and nurses, for
patients and their families they can be extremely scary. Even routine events
and procedures can produce anxiety in such patients. An eye check up can feel
as traumatic as open-heart surgery. Knowing what people feel and helping them
relax with comforting words can make a doctor’s job simpler, and this is what
an advocate is trained to do.
A doctor
once called up a patient-advocate saying, “This patient doesn’t understand
anything. She refuses to go home. Can you please go and drill some sense into
her thick head?”
The
patient-advocate went and spoke to the distraught woman. Later he came back and
asked the doctor, “Did you ask the patient why she didn’t want to go home?”
“No,”
replied the confused doctor.
“Because
she’s homeless and has nowhere to go…”
Unprovoked, nameless anger can be an
expression of helplessness. It’s the patient-advocate’s job to see through the
façade and dig out the real source and meaning of that anger and help resolve
the issue quickly and efficiently.
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When a Family is Angry
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The above is an extract from Dr.Aniruddha Malpani's book : Patient Advocacy - Giving Voice to Patients
The book launch will take place on Saturday, 16 November 2013 at Hall of Harmony, Nehru Center, Worl, Mumbai - 400018 during the 4th Annual Putting Patients First Conference.
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