Unfortunately I have had the recent pleasure of injuring myself – not\u00a0through any heroic activity such as lifting a crashed car off a small child, but, good grief,\u00a0simply through removing an article of clothing – and to prevent a similar injury I had been counselled by those in the know that surgery was my only option. As a well-educated, articulate, and hopefully-well-presented ‘middle-aged’ lady I was appalled at the level of patronisation and discourtesy that I received during a pre-surgery consultation with said surgeon.\u00a0In fact I felt so dissatisfied with my experience that I am\u00a0seeking the services of another whom I expect will be\u00a0more professional and remember that indeed not only\u00a0am\u00a0I person and as such I deserve to be treated with respect and to retain at least some modicum of dignity,\u00a0but that I also play a key role in preventing further injury to the afflicted site post-surgery.<\/p>\n
Still reeling from the unsavoury experience, I was delighted to see a paper in a recent search of PubMed which actually gives the patient a voice, instead of, perplexingly, trying to take them out of the equation as much as possible!\u00a0Latimer, Chaboyer and Gillespie present their research regarding hospital in-patient participation in preventing pressure-related injuries framed within a nurse-led patient-centred care model.<\/p>\n
The researchers conducted a content analysis of the\u00a0transcribed\u00a0semi-structured interviews\u00a0with 20 in-patients requiring assistance to ambulate\/reposition in two metropolitan hospitals. For those interested in the research findings, three categories were identified:<\/p>\n
1. experiencing pressure injury (including emotions, pain and odour)<\/p>\n
2. participating in pressure injury prevention (including being involved in care decisions and self-determination)<\/p>\n
3. resourcing pressure injury prevention and treatment (including cost, access, and prolonging healing)<\/p>\n
I particularly loved the following sentences:<\/p>\n
A. a sentence from the Discussion: “Participant’s interaction with clinicians, and nurses in particular, affected their emotional response to their pressure injury\u00a0experience<\/em>.” The importance of this sentence cannot be understated, especially as I am still reeling from my own relatively benign interaction.<\/p>\n B. the closing sentence of the Abstract: “If patient participation as a pressure injury prevention strategy is to be considered, nurses and organisations need to view patients as partners<\/em>.” In an environment of increasing workload and competition for resources,\u00a0not to mention my recent unsatisfactory experience, I would argue that\u00a0“If”\u00a0should be replaced with “As”.<\/p>\n