Hca/230 Appendix E

Axia College Material

Appendix E

Marginalized Patient Populations

Caregiving for patients and their families is more than just executing the specifics of a position. You may be a nurse, a medical or x-ray technician, or a physician’s assistant, and studied and worked as an intern to perfect the skills in your field. Caregiving, however, also includes the development of a relationship with the patient, one that can be of short or long duration, but that requires compliance by the patient to follow a procedure or therapeutic regimen. This relies a lot on the patient’s perspective of the caregiver and whether or not the patient has confidence in the caregiver’s abilities.

Building Patient Relationships

An old general adage, not attributed to any specific author, states, ”What you are speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying.” Is it true, then, that one first assesses the patient just by a look and then a few words? If that is so, then the caregiver is missing the opportunity to learn the individual characteristics of a patient that can assist in maintaining a full therapeutic perspective to bring the patient back to good health.

To develop a bond with the patient, the caregiver must put forth a pleasant but authoritative face while assessing the scope of the patient’s health, demeanor, and social skills. This can be a daunting and unexpected experience because studying patient models in school is very different when stepping out into the real world and dealing with real patients.

There are several considerations. The first is to remember the scope of job responsibilities and to remain within the parameters of what you are supposed to do. If you are not the doctor, at no time should you make statements or innuendos related to diagnosis or treatment. This includes refraining from statements that question a doctor’s treatment or diagnosis, particularly to the patient, who may then become confused and question the integrity of their treatment. You...