Abstracts by keywords: Communication
Relatives such as children, spouses, parents, siblings or friends often play central roles in outpatient and inpatient care. Although most of the discourse is about relatives providing care, relatives also act, for example, as referrers, mediators, information seekers, translators or decision-makers (Bischofberger, 2011). They are thus (regardless of the patient's care needs) essential support in the treatment and management of numerous diseases (Reifegerste, 2019). At the same time, however, they can also disrupt care processes or at least be perceived accordingly by healthcare professionals because, for example, they impede the patient's recovery by providing too much support, their absence makes discharge more difficult, or they confront the doctors with too high expectations (Wilz & Meichsner, 2012 ). However, the majority of them show a high level of motivation to support the patient in coping with illnesses, so that the question arises as to how their motivation can be integrated well into care processes. Although the relatives are omnipresent in health care - be it with positive as well as negative consequences - they are often not considered as a stakeholder of the care. They are “hidden in plain sight” (Wolff & Roter, 2008). In nursing facilities, in paediatrics, oncology or palliative care, they are usually considered to be key participants. In many other areas of care, on the other hand, they are sometimes regarded as an annoying appendage of the patient, ignored or even actively avoided, even if there are hardly any diseases or patients in which they play no role at all (Reifebarste, in press).
28.07.2020
Delivering bad news poses a special challenge for every doctor. We would like to argue pointedly that a doctor who has mastered the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses but is not able to convey his sympathy and offer of support to the patient is one not fulfilling a significant part of his professional duties. The reality of everyday medical practice and clinic shows, however, that the doctor can hardly find the time required to let the person seeking help speak out and to translate the patient's problem into a billable format. This medical limitation is all the more critical given that numerous studies have shown that professional doctor-patient communication has a positive effect on the success of care (1,2). Placebo research also shows that everything the doctor does in interaction with the patient has a therapeutic effect, including communication in particular (3). The “perception of life-changing diagnoses by patients and their relatives” has rarely been examined through surveys. For them, the transmission of bad news is an exceptional psychological situation that requires special attention and mindfulness (3, 4). One of the first surveys on the subject was conducted among Iranian nurses, which also included the transmission of cancer diagnoses (5). With the present survey we want to show that ultimately the perception of the conversation by the patient and/or his relatives and not the conversation itself should be the indicator for the value of the conversation.
04.06.2018
When it comes to health matters, patients are anything but used to taking responsibility for themselves and their health. SGB V already emphasizes that they have shared responsibility and a duty to cooperate. However, it assigns the main responsibility to statutory health insurance. In the past, the traditional way of thinking in medicine often led to patients being seen as objects of medicine without their own responsibility (Schmid et al., page 14). In this context, the focus of care on acute, episodic and one-dimensional diseases is specifically mentioned, not least due to ever-increasing specializations (Müller-Mundt and Schaeffer, page 143).