Monday, September 22, 2014

10 Exciting Ideas on How to Learn or Teach Healthcare “Bedside Manners”



10 Exciting Ideas on How to Learn or Teach Healthcare “Bedside Manners”


Doctors, You Can Learn to Do a Better Job Healing and Your Patients Can Show You How!
Healthcare professionals strive to "do no harm". Yet, some do not know they are harming patients with their bedside manners. A new application for an old tool might help practitioners help realize they are indeed hurting their patients by their behavior, words, body language, etc. 

Biofeedback devices have been around a long time, and many are available even to the public. These devices are normally used to manage stress through relaxation techniques. Most of those publicly available use skin conductance to determine stress level. 

These devices can also be used to determine stress triggers, which in some cases can be healthcare professionals, themselves. In fact, it is known that the mere presence of a doctor around a patient will increase the patient's blood pressure. This is known as the "White Coat Syndrome" because doctors are seen as authoritarian figures. 

A doctor's bedside manner determines the patient's stress level, in many cases. This is particularly true for patients who are children, sensitive in nature, or are very sick.
Biofeedback relaxation devices can indicate the stress level of patients. Since the doctor's bedside manner has a great influence on the patient's stress, perhaps these devices could indicate to a doctor how good their bedside manner is. This automatic stress level indicator on the patient might be particularly helpful for those people who are afraid to confront their doctor, which most of us are. 

Imagining how this might work would go something like this. Patient goes to the doctor wearing a biofeedback "stress" indicator. The doctor knows about this and is cooperative. The doctor then conducts a normal visit, frequently noticing the patient's stress monitor. Typically, the device has a green light indicating a relaxed condition, yellow indicating stress occurring, and red for severe stress. The doctor would then adjust their behavior to maintain the monitor in a green state, indicating patient relaxation. The doctor would take note of what works and what does not work. In other words, the doctor would notice when they were helping and also when they were hurting the patient. From this, the doctor could improve their bedside manner. With such a device, the caring doctor could adjust his or her behavior for each patient on each day, since patients change from day to day. 

If you like this idea and want to put it into action, below are some ideas.
 
1. If you are a patient, ask your doctor what they think of this concept. See if they would be open to feedback, either verbally by you and/or electronically by a biofeedback device.
2. If you are healthcare professional, please consider how monitoring a patient's stress level could help you improve your bedside manner. Experiment on yourself and with your colleagues first, then try it with your patients. You can buy "home biofeedback devices", just as your patients can. These devices are publicly available.
3. As a patient, purchase or make a biofeedback device and perform your own stress level and relaxation experiments. Find out what your stress triggers are. Learn how you can better relax and manage stress, even during difficult medical procedures. You can learn to help yourself heal, since stress often causes or contributes to illness. Be sure to let your doctor know what you are doing to help yourself heal. Wear your purchased or made biofeedback device to your doctor, with their permission. Hopefully, most doctors will be willing to cooperate in learning how they can improve their overall effectiveness. You might just amaze your doctor and give them something to think about themselves.
4. If you are handy, make a biofeedback device from a kit or from the many plans on the Internet and perform your own experiments. Others have done this and you can too.
5. If you are a young student, consider this a Science Fair Project. In this project, you will learn about Affective Computing, which involves devices that measure emotions, especially with a computer. In addition, you will learn the importance of a good Doctor-Patient Relationship to achieve a speedy and long-lasting healing. Invite your doctor to your science fair. Perhaps your doctor could help or advise with your Science Fair Project, with the permission of your school and teacher.
6. If you are medical student or a biomedical engineering student, consider this a research project. This could be a collaborative effort between the Medical and Engineering Colleges at a University. Perhaps you could get funding from the government or private industries to fund this research.
7. Do not be left out of this discussion if you are a nurse, care assistant, or even cleaning staff. Your demeanor does mean something to a patient. Experiment with an Emotional Stress Indicator on yourself and when around others. As you are affected by the actions or inactions of others, do you not do the same to your patients? Find out how you can help the patients heal better and faster by just improving your own "bedside manner", whether or not the doctors do the same.
8. A good health care team works best when everyone is treated well. The whole medical team could wear stress monitors visible to each other, and even to patients. Perhaps the devices could be fashioned after "radiation badges", only indicate the emotional level of the badge wearer. Of course, each person would be aware of their own stress by their own internal cues. In addition, others could visibly see each other's stress levels too. Everyone could do all they could to keep everyone's stress indicators in the "green relaxed zone". Everyone's emotional level would be "transparent" and easily discernible by others. This is a scientific alternative to trying to "read minds" or "read body language".
9. As a Biomedical Engineer, Geek, or whatever, consider this as a challenge, make such devices, and then show others how to do the same.
10. Lastly, and this is something everyone can do, promote this concept socially, in person and with social networks. Post this article as a start and add your own comments and ideas. Do not give up. What do you have to lose? 

Takeaways:
  • Low emotional stress promotes patient healing. Medical staff should do all they can to reduce emotional stress within patients.
  • Teams work better with low emotional stress. In addition, patients "pick up" a caregivers stress and then this creates additional stress within the patient.
  • Technology exists to show personal emotional stress level. Patients could use these devices themselves to relax, have a sense of control, and improve their own healing. The medical staff could use these devices to promote patient healing and improve team efficiency.
For more information:

Some Biofeedback Tools available to the public:
Disclaimer - Article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice.

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