The healthcare environments are known to be full of stress and welcoming a hive of activity. Being hospitalized may call for unexpected emotions and stress responses on various levels of treatment. Healthcare sciences have already identified stress as a roadblock impacting the patient experience. The healthcare facilities continue to struggle with the stressful responses violating the clinical values.
Organizational attempts can function like a routine delegated to alleviate patient and medical stress. The leisurely opportunities and trivial experiences available at a healthcare facility, however, more often go unexplored. Organizing regular or periodic activities like musical chairs or songs can promote emotional harmony in the clinical environment.
How different is patient stress from the burnout of the healthcare team?
Apart from the patients developing cold feet towards the clinical interventions, it’s medical teams that suffer from burnout. Burnout remains a commonplace phenomenon, especially in the regular teams operating on the patients and paying regular visits for therapeutic purposes. Physicians experience burnout after various activities which may interfere with the future clinical performances directly or indirectly. Patients may find it hard to deal with everyday stress specifically when the patient gets to undergo regular procedures.
Burnout entails a psychological construct characterized by depersonalization, a decrease in the personal attainments, and depersonalization. Although patient stress is markedly different from that of burnout in healthcare professionals, the impacts may last longer than a layman expects. Reduction in the stress, therefore, shines out as a process to transform lives responsibly and taking the entertainment quotient to a responsive level through various activities.
How would you reduce the hospitalization stress of the patients?
- Likeminded individuals or gathering the like-minded crowds for some leisurely activities can build a source of relief, inculcate hope, and bridge the emotional gaps with high-spiritedness.
- Leisure activities can build ideologies and rebuild a sense of control although the clinical aspects of the patient are usually inconvenienced.
- Discuss with the caregivers about the most favorite nicknames of the patient.
- Find out more about the gestures of the patients when the patient addresses physical pain or emotional lethargy.
- Minimize the questions to ask the patient and the instructions directed to the patient as patients view comforts in most situations.
- Promise emotional reassurance to the patient in all possible scenarios.
- Avoid the usage of forceful verbs like ‘Don’t you realize’ as they can needle the patient.
- If the patient is uncomfortable eating alone when the immediate guardian/caregiver is absent, delight the patient with indelible support.
- Alert the immediate caregiver about the procedures to approach shortly. Every scheduled and unscheduled change disrupts the routine of the patient.
- Leaving the patient unattended may be another roadblock to quick and symptomatic relief.
- Try to make sure that the immediate caregiver is present with the patient each time a clinical activity is in full swing.
- If the patient curls the lips at any activity denoting disapproval, stop and reconsider the soft skills or techniques employed.
Following are the tips for the family members/caregivers:
- It’s a mandate for the caregivers to respond to their routine needs appropriately and take adequate sleep.
- The regular caregivers should hire an aide or entrust the duties to the other caregivers in their absence.
- The caregivers should properly describe the policies of the healthcare facility to the newly hired helpers/aides to avoid any inconvenience in their absence.
- The patient should receive optimum attention specifically when there are any active clinical procedures for the patient to attend.
Apollo Telehealth has been instrumental in reworking ways to better lives and curbs the situations that create stressful hospital stays. Apollo continuously explores the avenues where transformation has maximum room and utilizes the scope for transformation meticulously. At Apollo, we believe that healthcare facilities are full of recreational opportunities and various teams can contribute to the remarkable patient experience.
