Tag Archive for: compassion

Advice From a Cancer Survivor for Better Whole Person Care

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Advice from a Cancer Survivor for Better Whole Person Care from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

 How can better whole person care be achieved by patients and healthcare providers? Dr. Nicole Rochester and Sasha Tanori discuss ways that care can be improved to work toward optimal patient care.

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Transcript:

Dr. Nicole Rochester:

If you had some advice that you could give from a patient’s perspective, and maybe you’re talking to a policy maker or healthcare providers, but how can we do better in this area as it relates to whole person care, culturally competent care?

Sasha Tanori:

I would definitely say take your patients more seriously and not just like one-offs, okay, bye. A lot of the time, they just do a couple of tests and they’re like, “Oh well, we can’t find anything, so let’s just move along,” and there needs to be more conversation as well.

A lot of the doctors will come in and talk to you for like you said, 15 minutes, and then it’s like, “Okay, you know, well, we can’t find anything wrong, so just go.” And it’s like, “No, let me explain everything, let me explain how I’m mentally feeling, how I’m physically feeling, how stressed out feeling, how emotionally I’m feeling.” And there are just so many different layers to just one, if you come in and say, “Oh, well, my hip hurts.” Okay, but why I explain more to it, not just okay let’s do an x-ray and you leave. Like there needs to be a lot more conversation going on between the patient and the doctor, there needs to be a lot more understanding where it could also be stress as it relates to work, it could be stress related to family, to love the ones…to kids, to spouses, there are so many different things on top of that, that’s more than just, you know, “Hey, you know like, I just need a prescription,” and you can go. There’s so much more conversation needs to be have then I really wish that a lot more healthcare providers would have that conversation with them, I know they don’t always have the time, they’re busy, but at least a little bit more compassion, a little bit more understanding, going about when it comes to patients.

Dr. Nicole Rochester:

I appreciate that, and you’re right. The time is an issue. And I will tell you as a physician and as somebody who has tons of physician friends, it causes internal conflict within the doctors, because I don’t know any doctor that got into this for any reason, primarily, other than to help patients, and so to be placed in these situations where you know that you’re falling short of providing the care that your patients need is actually quite disturbing.

Expert Tips for Managing MPN-Related Anxiety

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Expert Tips for Managing MPN-Related Anxiety from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo. 

Health-related anxiety and worry can be overwhelming. Dr. Jennifer Huberty provides advice for using complementary approaches to cope with the emotional impact of a chronic cancer, like myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs).

Dr. Jennifer Huberty is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University. She focuses her research on the use of complementary approaches to manage symptoms and improve quality of life for patients living with myeloproliferative neoplasms. More about Dr. Huberty here: chs.asu.edu/jennifer-huberty.

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Transcript:

Dr. Jennifer Huberty: 

With anxiety and worry – it’s like we get in this state of mind that we can’t seem to get out of, and then, thoughts just keep piling in and piling in and adding to more anxiousness and more anxiousness, and so, the key is quieting the mind, and the best way to do that is to focus on your breath, and again, just coming back to the moment, coming back to the moment. You can do body scans where you’re just thinking about where your body is in space, going from the tips of your toes all the way to the top of your head.

I recommend guided meditation for MPN patients, especially because it is difficult. The anxiety and worry is real. The fears are real. This is a – it’s a traumatic event to be diagnosed with any cancer, and the brain is a powerful thing in terms of getting in our way of healing and feeling better, and so, knowing that it’s powerful, we can quiet our mind so that our body can learn to let go. And, I will say that spending that time doing that with the anxiety and worry, there will be physiological symptoms that change – so, heart rate goes down, blood pressure goes down, sweaty palms decrease, stomachaches – those kinds of things will tend to go away as anxiety and worry goes down.

And, the other important thing I would say is a tip for managing is to be self-compassionate. So, that’s a big part of meditation and yoga philosophy, is self-compassion. And so….being okay with being anxious and being okay with being worried, and there’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s completely normal.

And so, learning to be compassionate in ways that you would be compassionate to a sibling, or a parent, or a best friend – use those same compassionate thoughts and feelings toward yourself.