“The good physician treats the disease. The great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”
Sir William Osler — co-founder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
Hello and welcome to another edition of Vascular Access. In this edition, the editorial team present two papers that focus, directly and indirectly, on the importance of assessment. Secondary to this, but no less important, is the added value of including the patient voice in the assessment process. The essential requirement of accurate assessment is to view patients holistically and thus identify their real needs. As educated and qualified health professionals, we see ourselves as the experts on health care and all that it encompasses. Indeed, a level of knowledge and skills expertise is expected of us to carry out our work competently. However, we should not forget the patient and their inherent expertise about themselves. Patients understand their bodies and how they respond to medication and treatments better than anyone. Considering the patient voice is an essential strategy to patient or person-centred care.
The modern concept of patient-centred care draws on research by the Picker Institute in 1993 that cited a number of dimensions, chief of which was “respect for patient preference and values”1. Interestingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) uses the term ‘responsiveness’ instead of ‘patient-centred care’. Responsiveness describes how a health care system meets people’s expectation regarding respect for people and their wishes. The WHO states that recognising responsiveness as an intrinsic goal of health care systems reinforces that they are there to serve people2. However, hospitals are very good at turning human beings into patients. Patients are compiled into lists, sorted by disease type and triaged. But humans, people, are different. Humans are what patients turn back into when they remove their IVs and snap the ID bracelet off. The research presented in this journal edition reiterates the importance of considering the patient voice and experience in our assessment, and adjusting our care and treatment accordingly to demonstrate respect for them as people. Our role as health care professionals is to serve. It is our duty to do this to the best of our ability, guided by the best research evidence available. But it is also our privilege to serve, treat, care for people, sometimes in the most vulnerable of moments.
Samantha Keogh
AVAS President
Author(s)
Samantha Keogh AVAS President
References
Gerteis M, Edgman-Levitan S, Daley J & Delbanco T. Through the Patient’s Eyes: Understanding and Promoting Patient-Centered Care. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.
- World Health Organization. The World Health Report 2000 — Health Systems: Improving Performance. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2000:1–215.