Answer:
Patient-Centered Care

Patient-centered care has been defined as providing care that is respectful of as well as responsive to the preference of an individual including their values and needs. This also ensures that the values of the patients guide all the clinical decisions. Moreover, a person-centered approach requires a true partnership between the healthcare provider and the individuals (Bokhour, et al, 2018). The recent challenging situation which was faced by me was when I was in a hospital setting and was caring for a patient. The patient was suffering from cancer. I communicated with the family members of the patient regarding the disease of the patient and summarised all the necessary details with the family members regarding the treatment options and the therapies which might help the patient in recovering from such a serious illness of cancer. The family members of the patient were also summarised regarding the person-centered approach which will be used with the patient. The main issue in the situation or scenario was that the patient was not aware of anything. It is believed that the main priority principle of providing patient-centered care is to keep the patient updated regarding his/her diseases, treatments, and various other aspects to respect the preferences of the patients. Moreover, another principle of information and education under patient-centered care states that patients should completely be informed about their prognosis or condition by following the process of appropriate communication which was not being followed in the situation where I was caring for the patient with cancer.

Considering the above situation, it can be stated that patient-centered care is improved in such situations by following a proper criterion. It can be stated that patient-centered care can be improved by using the best practices for taking better care of the patients. First and foremost, a core principle that should be followed by the healthcare staff includes showing respect. Patients are known to have direct as well as indirect needs which affect the outcomes of the patients. The level of medical education, transportation availability, financial constraints as well as care assess to the patients tend to influence their experience and treatment choices. Acknowledging as well as taking care of the patient concerns tend to demonstrate that the healthcare staff sees humans with a unique need (Fix, et al, 2018). Another core principle that can help in improving patient-centered care includes engaging patients in their care plan. It is believed that by encouraging the questions and demonstrating that the healthcare staff taking care of patients are always open to new ideas, they will always inspire patient-centered care communication and put the family of the patients at an ease Moreover, when the patients are educated regarding their condition and treatment choices, they empower them to partner with them (Perez Jolles, Lengnick-Hall & Mittman, 2019). Healthcare staff can show the patients some models and diagrams, refer them to the videos and websites and also share case studies of the kind of patient outcomes that the patients are striving for. In addition to this, requesting feedback can also help in improving patient-centered care. Whether that means asking patients how they felt regarding their appointment, establishing committees of patient advisory for suggesting the improvements, administering the phone surveys, and hearing from the patients will help each healthcare professional thrive of the care team (Roué, et al, 2017).

Apart from this, patient-centered care can be improved by helping the patients in managing their medication, providing them the physical and emotional support, supporting the mental health of patients, coordinating the patient care with other providers, as well as involving the friends and family members of the patients in the care (Fix, et al, 2018). It has been found that ensuring that patients are being treated as the individuals needs speaking with each patient individually about their treatment is an important element. This not only involves the patients in their treatment but also improves the patient-centered as, during the individual sessions, healthcare professionals tend to make time to ask each patient how they are feeling about the treatment plan, are they receiving quality care or not, and what they like or dislike regarding the facility of the treatment. Obtaining such feedback helps in working on the things which are not working well in the organization which results in better outcomes for patients (Eklund, et al, 2019).

Hence, it can be concluded that making chronic care such as treating cancer patients or others more patient-centered helps in enabling the patients to manage their health as well as standard of living, thereby enhancing the social and physical well-being as well as satisfaction with care.

References

Bokhour, B. G., Fix, G. M., Mueller, N. M., Barker, A. M., Lavela, S. L., Hill, J. N., … & Lukas, C. V. (2018). How can healthcare organizations implement patient-centered care? Examining a large-scale cultural transformation. BMC health services research, 18(1), 1-11.

Eklund, J. H., Holmström, I. K., Kumlin, T., Kaminsky, E., Skoglund, K., Höglander, J., … & Meranius, M. S. (2019). “Same same or different?” A review of reviews of person-centered and patient-centered care. Patient Education and Counseling, 102(1), 3-11.

Fix, G. M., VanDeusen Lukas, C., Bolton, R. E., Hill, J. N., Mueller, N., LaVela, S. L., & Bokhour, B. G. (2018). Patient?centred care is a way of doing things: How healthcare employees conceptualize patient?centred care. Health Expectations, 21(1), 300-307.

Perez Jolles, M., Lengnick-Hall, R., & Mittman, B. S. (2019). Core functions and forms of complex health interventions: a patient-centered medical home illustration. Journal of general internal medicine, 34(6), 1032-1038.

Roué, J. M., Kuhn, P., Maestro, M. L., Maastrup, R. A., Mitanchez, D., Westrup, B., & Sizun, J. (2017). Eight principles for patient-centred and family-centred care for newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit. Archives of Disease in Childhood-Fetal and Neonatal Edition, 102(4), F364-F368.