KALW-Interview w/ LHH Social Worker Paul Kelley

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KALW
StoryCorps: Healing the mind through life and death with the SF Zen Hospice Project

ABE LINCOLN!

paul hendrickson GOOGLE IMAGES!

---This originally blew my mind. All of my pictures are on GOOGLE IMAGES. I realize that everyone's pictures are there, but truthfully I didn't expect the first twenty rows or so to be so full.

CLICK HERE
Click ''Images'' between News and Shopping.

---To clear up blurriness...click picture you wish to view. Goes one row below showing big pic and 8 thumbnails. Click on photo you wish and click on ''view image.'' Should be NO blurriness.
---Same goes for red-covered gif files.
Get them in the NO blurry phase and wait. Eventually there is movement. Be patient.

The SECRET -

Relating To A Member

of the Underserved Population;

The SECRET

---What I have been working on for a long time has finally become clear to me. It is one of those answers that is so obvious that I'm almost embarrassed to talk about it. But...that doesn't hold the final card, so I guess I'll just say it.

---The secret to having a hospital patient be happy and satisfied is to simply ask him what he wants and give it to him. (You may have to massage this dynamic a bit to get the desired response.) The patient may not have had his preferences cared about for a long time. He may be out of practice with the basic art of being civil. Or, it may not have been his strong suit to begin with. Have NO FEAR... eventually, if you are sensitive to his situation, you will get the response that is desired.

---That will usually illicit a smile and a thank you. He will then be set up for a friendship if one cares to pursue it. Simple supply and demand. Probably the same thing that works on you and your whole family. I majored in economics...I should have gotten this much sooner.

1] Ask him/her what he/she wants and supply it. If this is done you will receive a smile at the very least.

2] Listen to what he/she has to say AND hear what he/she is really saying

3] Take him/her seriously

---If these steps are followed, I guarantee that will see changes in your relationships. The more your heart buys into this will be the greater the rewards you reap from doing it. Be Well.

Understand that I am NOT speaking of Medical Needs. I am speaking of the patient's communication with his team.

The NURSING ASSISTANT

The NURSING ASSISTANT

 ---I was talking to a member of the Zen Hospice Volunteers and the subject of Green Gulch and Dr. Grace came up. He mentioned that he hadn't seen the movie of her life at this point. Many people that he knows have seen it...and liked it, but he hasn't seen it yet.
---To refresh your memory: she is the LHH doctor who was involved in a head-on collision on the Golden Gate Bridge. She lapsed into a coma. It was touch and go for a long while after the collision. Nobody knew if she'd retain her brain functions again...enough to even speak. It was a very hairy time for awhile as she recovered. We didn't know too what extent the recovery would happen. To make a long story short, she now drives a power wheelchair and works in our pain clinic
---She was my doctor at the time of the accident. She was very personable and we had a good relationship. It was her leaving for awhile to recover from the collision that then caused my new doctor to be Dr. Victoria Sweet. This was a year-and-a-half before she left to write ''God's Hotel.'' I'm sure you know...the book ended up being a best seller putting Laguna Honda and Dr. Sweet on the map. It also resulted in a TEDtalk from Victoria Sweet and all sorts of notice.

---When all of this was going down, I remember my own take on what's happening. After being assured that Dr. Grace was going to recover...I became elated with an undeniable fact that would be a huge result from this. Dr. Grace will NOW experience life as a patient and would vindicate the fact that being forced to see a hospital from the pov of a patient would result in a big change in the staff/patient relationship that was very much needed. The resident would now have someone to champion their cause.
---Her statement was this (giving a talk to the doctors upon her return to LHH) – she learned that the most important relationship that a patient has in the hospital is not the doctor/patient relationship, but the relationship that the patient has with his nursing assistant. He/she can really make or break your time spent in a hospital.
---I felt that the statement was 100% accurate BUT was NOT emphasized to be as important as it IS. To me and my own experience...experiencing many of the same things first-hand and witnessing many others in the same boat. If that relationship is good the experience is positive. If that relationship suffers (in any way) the experience suffers accordingly.
---Let us put a microscope on that for a minute. The most important relationship that a patient has is with his nursing assistant. For awhile, the patient relies on this person to be his eyes + ears for him. Here is the part that always seems to be short-sheeted...''the caliber of that relationship and if that person (the nursing assistant) has the ability to truly be your eyes + ears.'' Wherein that relationship lies is the foundation that the whole hospital experience is built. For awhile anyway, he or she can make or break your hospital experience. They are responsible for our pee and poop. How much more intimate do you want to get?
---As important as that relationship is...it is NOT given MUCH importance as to being sure that the two people involved are two people who work together in tandem for the optimal result of making the patient as well as he possibly can be. The objective is to rehabilitate the whole patient. More time and consideration should be paid to the relationship that has the most influence. The Nursing Assistant AND The Patient.

---This applies to some of us!

---When that relationship works we will probably have a success story. If that relationship doesn't work we will have a patient who doesn't recover as fully as he should. Be Well.

This may be just a draft.