9 hours ago · The IOM report frequently mentions that “a wealth of cancer-related community support exists, many of which are available at no cost to patients.” 1 Finding these veins of gold will be a major task for each practice. We all have much work to do, and this IOM report makes it clear that these services are an integral part of quality cancer care. >> Go To The Portal
The whole-patient approach to healthcare goes beyond “How are you feeling?” to ask: “Why are you feeling that way?”, and on a more granular level, “What lifestyle circumstances are affecting your decision making and behavior to make you feel that way?”
We’ve helped healthcare organizations in practically every area of specialization more readily embrace the whole-patient model by making it easier to communicate with their patients and offer valuable, and often lifesaving, insights on their conditions.
The model is broken up into several distinct areas that encompass the patient’s care needs: medical, psychosocial, attitudes and beliefs, and information and communication preferences.
Treating the whole patient also allows patients to feel more heard and respected, and it goes beyond the often-rigid care that doesn’t line up with patients’ individualized needs. What’s Involved with Treating the Whole Patient?
We believe nurses have key roles to play as team members and leaders for a reformed and better-integrated , patient-centered health care system. This report begins with the assumption that nursing can fill such new and expanded roles in a redesigned health care system. To take advantage of these op- portunities, however, nurses must be allowed to practice in accordance with their professional training, and the education they receive must better prepare them to deliver patient-centered, equitable, safe, high-quality health care services. Addi- tionally, they must engage with physicians and other health care professionals to deliver efficient and effective care and assume leadership roles in the redesign of the health care system. In particular, we believe that preparation of an expanded workforce, necessary to serve the millions who will now have access to health insurance for the first time, will require changes in nursing scopes of practice, advances in the education of nurses across all levels, improvements in the prac- tice of nursing across the continuum of care, transformation in the utilization of nurses across settings, and leadership at all levels so nurses can be deployed effectively and appropriately as partners in the health care team. In 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) approached the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to propose a partnership between the two organiza- tions to assess and respond to the need to transform the nursing profession to meet these challenges. The resulting collaborative partnership created a unique blend of organizational expertise and content expertise, drawing on the IOM’s mission to serve as adviser to the nation to improve health and RWJF’s long- standing commitment to ensuring that the nursing workforce has the necessary capacity, in terms of numbers, skills, and competence, to meet the present and future health care needs of the public. Recognizing that the nursing profession faces the challenges outlined above, RWJF and the IOM established a 2-year Initiative on the Future of Nursing. The cornerstone of the initiative is the work of this IOM committee. The Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine was tasked with producing a report containing recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing, including changes in public and institutional policies at the national, state, and local levels. The specific charge to the committee is presented in Box P-1. The committee held five meetings that included three technical workshops, which were designed to gather information on topics related to the study charge. In addition to these meetings, the committee hosted three public forums on the fu-
CATHERINE DOWER, Associate Director of Research, Center for the Health Professions, University of California, San Francisco
The most valuable information in the world can quickly become the least valuable if the transmitter fails to reach the receptor, which is why the Information and Communication Preferences component of the whole-patient model is critical. It deals with how patients learn, when patients are open to learning, how patients seek out information, and how they prefer to exchange information with a care team. More and more, AI and electronic communication are playing a key role in the Information and Communication Preferences component, because they allow for quick, logistically friendly and effective interaction with care providers, and exchange of valuable information.
The whole-patient approach to healthcare goes beyond “How are you feeling?” to ask: “Why are you feeling that way?”, and on a more granular level, “What lifestyle circumstances are affecting your decision making and behavior to make you feel that way?”
To maximize patient outcomes, cultivate long-term health-driven behavioral changes, and get patients to proactively prioritize their health, providers must meet patients where they are: functionally, emotionally, and socially.
If a patient is struggling with multiple health issues, they usually see their conditions as interconnected, and seeking treatment beyond compartmentalized symptom management. If a person suffers a heart attack, falls, hits their head, and develops neurological issues as a result of the impact, heart disease just became one of many problems on a list of many. Nonetheless, patients routinely report frustration that their doctors don’t see their conditions as related and fail to discuss holistic treatment options with them. An article in the Atlantic highlighted one woman’s 15-year quest for a diagnosis because her doctors and nurses were not hearing her during her visits.
GoMo Health understands the close relationship between information exchange and the whole-patient model, and we’ve emerged as innovators in the field of personalized patient engagement through electronic communication. We’ve helped healthcare organizations in practically every area of specialization more readily embrace the whole-patient model by making it easier to communicate with their patients and offer valuable, and often lifesaving, insights on their conditions.
Treating the whole patient also allows patients to feel more heard and respected, and it goes beyond the often-rigid care that doesn’t line up with patients’ individualized needs.
W hen a patient goes to their healthcare provider, they bring with them a complex and interconnected set of circumstances that contributes to the development and exacerbation of their conditions. While it’s very common for doctors to see the person sitting before them as a composite of symptoms, and a problem to be solved, there is usually much more at play that needs to be addressed during the care process.