Will Any Patient Advisor Do?

cog

In her blog post, Alies Maybee explores whether patient advisors are interchangeable entities – not unlike a cog in a wheel. Can patient advisors move from role to role and be seamlessly substituted for one another? Are patient advisors swappable? A portion of what she quickly discovers is found below.

As I’ve come to know some of my fellow advisors, I have concluded that in terms of skills, attributes and experience related to the business of advising, we are not all the same.

As advisors, we sometimes assess our involvement and our experience of a group differently. I venture to suggest this is in part because we are different types of advisors. Sometimes it’s like we weren’t all at the same party.

Our healthcare partners don’t often see our experience of involvement in the same way we do. Not only that, I sense they may make an assumption that all advisors experience the involvement in the same way.

My hope is that understanding the different types of advisors will bring a new level of clarity to how we choose to interact and assess those interactions.

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Patient/Family Partners Wanted

Are you a Patient Family Partner in Canada? If so, you are invited to join a focus group or interview in person (Vancouver) or via telephone or webinar. To find out more about this exciting opportunity, click on the image below.

Call for Patient Family Partners

Please Note: The deadline to express your interest in participating in this project is May 31, 2016.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words?

Have you ever found yourself at a medical appointment trying desperately to explain to your physician what and how you are feeling? Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, nothing you are saying is coming out right and any utterances you make are not conveying the message you want. Rather than struggling to verbalize your thoughts, why not draw them instead? This idea is explored in Damien Pollard’s article Magic Eyes.

Trapped inside her own body

Imagine being conscious of what is happening around you but not being able to respond in any way. Imagine listening to doctors talk about you and the grave prognosis they held for you, without them realizing that you could hear every word.  You want nothing more than to tell people that you are okay but there is no way to do so because you are not asleep but not awake.  This is the reality Brisa Alfaro found herself in. Click here to read Alfaro’s story.

At 32, Brisa Alfaro experienced a brain-stem stroke, one that leaves patients paralyzed but painfully aware of the world.( National Post)

Looking for Something to Read?

If you are looking for a new book to read and have an interest in how the humanity of patients and families can be maintained while under hospital care, you may wish to check out Through the Valley of Shadows by Samuel Morris Brown.
Through the valley

Using insights from cognitive psychology, Dr. Samuel Brown discusses new approaches to reduce suffering for patients and their families when they need high levels of care, including concrete strategies to apply before, during, and after a serious illness.

Click here to continue reading.

A Historic Day in Canada?


The long-awaited and much-debated doctor-assisted-dying Bill C-14 was tabled in Parliament today. According to the bill, individuals who are “suffering intolerably” and whose death is “reasonably foreseeable” will be able to access doctor-assisted death, but “mature minors” and the mentally ill will not. In addition, advance consent for individuals with degenerative disorders, including dementia and Alzheimers, will be disallowed.

Not surprisingly, there are many people who feel that this legislation is far too restrictive and limiting. However, according to Jane Philpott, Canada’s Health Minister, “We believe this legislation is the best approach to ensure that dying patients who are suffering unbearable pain have the choice for a peaceful death and the vulnerable are protected.” What are your thoughts?

Click here to read more about what some see to be a “historic day.”

A glimpse into the life of an ICU nurse

What would it be like to be an ICU nurse? Below is the introduction to a blog post that provides some insight into this question.

We received a MET call (Medical Emergency Team) from the general ward to immediately come and assist. The patient’s name was Mr. ‘Stevens’. He was 81 and was in our hospital due to severe exacerbations of COPD. He was in acute respiration distress and had a low blood pressure. There was no time to discuss whether he should come to the intensive care unit or not. Mr Stevens had never discussed this before with his doctor, nor with his sons and in this moment of distress, it was now an option for him. The only thing that was clear was that he wanted to be relieved of his shortness of breath, his pain and his anxiety. There was no chance to talk about the consequences of the decision to enter intensive care. The urgency of the situation forced him to just accept it.

However, in his eyes you could see that he had much to say… there were words that he couldn’t get out, things he wasn’t able to say when he arrived. We all knew this when we saw him coming in to our unit. We could see the emotion, bubbling under the surface, all the feelings he wanted to express, but couldn’t any longer, simply restrained by his utter weakness in the final hours of his life.

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“The Difference Between Care & Caring”

The above video – “The Difference Between Care and Caring” recently won a number of local and national awards, including Best in Show at Edmonton’s ACE Awards.

What an incredible night for the Royal Alexandra Hospital,” Andrew Otway, president and CEO of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, said. “This was a video that really came together so beautifully and effectively because of the staff and leadership at the Royal Alex. We are so immensely proud of this hospital, the people who work here, and the difference they make each day.”

Click here to read more about the video and the family involved.