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Bedside Matters
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By: Jane Smith
When you walk into a hospital or health care environment, what you want to first know is that you are welcomed, and that it is an environment of healing. Your first encounter is so important that you should be recognized by your name, not a number, room, or diagnosis. The individual that first greets you should display a genuine concern for your well-being, and as though welcoming you to their home, should roll out the red carpet to make you comfortable. Bedside Matters is a series of expectations from the patient’s point of view of what matters to them most when their health is entrusted to a health care provider. It is also a tool for those who have the privilege to deliver care to empathize with the patient, and their family member or significant other. So often, like a robot, one is very good at their job, but forget that the patient AND their family is the reason for having their job in the first place. Patient and family centered care, in a healing environment is the first key to unlock in having top-notch bedside when you understand what matters. Maya Angelou, a manner,well known American poetess once said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Eye contact and touch apparently is very important with contact with one’s physician. According to a recent study by Northwestern Medicine, Doctors who make a lot of eye contact are viewed as more likeable and empathetic in a study of videotaped data from 110 first-time encounters between patients and doctors with an average of 3 minutes and 38 seconds per patient. Social touches such as a pat on the back or a handshake also increased likability, but of note the trust relationship seemed to decline if more than three social touches, such as a pat on the back or a handshake occurred (Spain, 2013).
By having laser focus on the person in front of you, while acknowledging the person or persons most important to them who are with them on their journey, you can achieve an initial trusting relationship that is fundamental to the ongoing healthcare experience. This early introduction to they key essential actions will ensure additional and lasting patient contacts with excellent bedside manner.
Spain, E. (2013). Eye Contact Builds Bedside Trust. Retrieved from
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2013/10/eye-contact-builds-
bedside-trust.html
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Close To The Earth
by Janet Johnson, Health Editor
Guideline One
One of the foremost guidelines in healthy eating, is to eat as “Close To The Earth” as you can and to eat in the four seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall, an d Winter. The foods of the earth in it’s natural, non-processed state will give us exactly what we need for nutritional support at the cellular level. In addition, eating according to the seasons will give us by design the necessary nutrients for the season we are in, as well as save costs. When we go to the market, I advise you to shop along the perimeter first which has the fresh produce, the whole grains and nuts, the fresh dairy, before shopping down the center which generally carries canned, frozen, and processed selections. A community farmer’s market is the best selection for locally grown produce, nuts, and berries. There is less chance for pesticides since they do not have to travel so far, as well as the foods are generally placed for market when they are ripe. Often some foods have to be picked before they have a chance to ripen on the tree or vine because you have to take into account the travel time, and they end up ripening in the crates. I encourage you to grow some of your own produce if possible, but if not, a local market is the next choice. You can look on your produce, nuts, and honey to see where it originated. The longer it travels, be aware. Raw or steamed is much better than boiled, and baked is superior to fried. In the Spring and Summer, the Earth gives us fresh berries and fruits in abundance, whereas Fall and Winter gives us squash and nuts. By design our gastrointestinal system digests protein sources such as lentils, chickpeas, eggs, almonds.
My favorite fruit, the avocado, which is really a berry provides all 18 essential amino acids that are necessary for the body to form what is called a complete protein and is more easily digested than the protein in a steak, and because it contains fiber is readily absorbed by the body (The Huffington Post, 2013).
Reference
The Huffington Post. (2013). 6 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Avocados.
Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/08/26/avocado-health-facts-
didnt-dont-know_n_3786419.html
