Something we talk about a lot at our hospital is that we expect our patients to take control of their own health.
You're out of breath and coughing like crazy? You should choose to stop smoking.
You've had a headache for three weeks and haven't tried Advil yet? Seriously? I have no words for you.
There are ads everywhere reminding patients that they need to be screened for various cancers. Patients should take responsibility for initiating contact.
Once you make contact, Advil didn't work or want to quit smoking? I'd LOVE to help. But honestly, if I'm pulling you by your nose to take care of yourself, you're not going to like it and I'm going to lose interest. Patients who come in wanting to find out what they can do to prevent constipation or to lower their cholesterol make me glow. I love teaching my patients.
An issue that comes up, as it does with so many patient centred practices, is time.
I try to get around this by building up an idea then giving my patients homework. Next visit, we review what happened. Getting patients to buy in is sometimes tricky but I find it gives us a goal to work towards in our visits, especially those with chronic disease.
I wonder if preparing a journal for patients with a specific disease to work through might work better. This article suggests journaling to improve compliance for exercise in the depressed, and offers suggestions for topics after walks such as "how do the trees around you look?" Maybe having a set list of mini goals to achieve would improve compliance.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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