The values of patient and family-centered care are incorporated throughout interactions with patients and/or their families
What is patient and family-centered care?
- Patient and family-centered care is driven by the goal to meet the needs of patients and their family in all aspects of the healthcare interaction. It is a model within which providers seek to partner with patients and families to identify and satisfy the full range of patient needs and preferences while being guided by core values1-3:
- Respect: Consideration for people’s wishes, concerns, values, priorities, perspectives and strengths
- Human dignity: Treating people as whole and unique human beings, not as problems or diagnoses
- Patients as leaders: Patients are experts in their own lives. Follow the lead of patients with respect to information giving, decision making, care in general and involvement of others
- Collaboration: Members of the multidisciplinary team aim to reduce fragmentation and enhance the quality and safety of care provided to patients4
- Patient and family-centered care is being adopted across the world by those in all fields of healthcare including the MRT professions. The model and its values form a cornerstone of these best practice guidelines – underpinning and informing all domains within these documents.
Patient and family-centered care in practice
- The CAMRT Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice reflect the importance of patient and family-centered care in the MRT professions, stressing the importance of respect, dignity and patient advocacy throughout1,2.
- The primary opportunity for the MRT to affect patient and family-centered care comes through direct interaction with the patient3-8:
- Respect patient values, expressed needs and the choices they make
- Make the patient the focus of attention for the duration of the visit
- Listen to and ask patients about their concerns to let them know that their best interests are a priority7
- Respect the patient’s presence in a room — avoid social conversations that do not involve/include the patient
- Take the opportunity to identify and discuss patient and family concerns
- Alleviate fear and anxiety by answering questions and providing information
- Respect a patient’s right to confidentiality, including requesting their permission to hold discussions with others present (e.g., family members)
- Follow the patient’s lead to set the tone of conversation
- Use open-ended questions to establish the patient as leader
- Provide the patient with options where available, involve them in decisions
- Make adjustments where possible to provide a more comfortable experience for the patient, for example, music has been successfully used to alleviate anxiety and fear9
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References
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Canadian Association of medical radiation technologists. Code of Ethics. CAMRT. June 2008. Available from: http://www.camrt.ca/mrt-profession/professional-resources/code-of-ethics/. [Accessed 3 Nov 2014]
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Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care. Available from: http://www.ipfcc.org/. Accessed 22 March 2012.
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Canadian Medical Association. Putting Patients First®: Patient-centred collaborative care. A discussion paper. July 2007. Available from: https://studylib.net/doc/18496961/patient-centred-collaborative-care. [Accessed 8 Jan 2019]
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Frampton S, et al. Patient Centered Care Improvement Guide. Planetree and Picker Institute, 2008. Available from: https://planetree.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Patient-Centered-Care-Improvement-Guide-10.10.08.pdf. [Accessed 7 Jan 2019]
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Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. Person-and Family-Centred Care. RNAO.ca. 2015. Available from: https://rnao.ca/sites/rnao-ca/files/FINAL_Web_Version_0.pdf. [Accessed 7 Jan 2019]
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Reynolds A. Patient-centered care. Radiol Technol 2009;81(2):133–147.
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Frampton S, et al. Patient Centered Care Improvement Guide: Practical approaches for building a patient-centred culture. Planetree and Picker Institute, 2008. Available from: https://planetree.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Patient-Centered-Care-Improvement-Guide-10.10.08.pdf. [Accessed 7 Jan 2019]
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Agwu K, Okoye I. The effect of music on the anxiety levels of patients undergoing hysterosalpingography. Radiography. 2007;13:122-125.
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Anderson C. Is Music Therapy an Effective Way to Reduce Distress and Increase Coping Skills in Pediatric Oncology Patients during their First Radiation Therapy Treatment? J Med Radiat Sci. 2014;45(2):178-179.