Abstract
Dear Colleagues
We couldn't be more excited to have made it to this point! When we set out to create a journal that would impact the patient experience, it only made sense that the ideas, strategies and experiences shared in JPE would focus on the patient. But there is an article in this issue I particularly like by our own Dr. Amy Burleson Sullivan and Dr. Deborah Miller because it focuses on an often overlooked member of the care team – the family or friend caregiver.
Being a caregiver involves much more than just taking care of a patient. The family caregiver plays a critical role in helping the person who has a medical condition manage his or her illness and its impact on all aspects of life. It's difficult to balance one's own obligations with the added pressure of another's needs. Simple things we take for granted, like sleeping through the night, or being able to leave the house, can become difficult. When the physical, emotional, social or financial challenges of caregiving begin to take a toll, how can we expect our family caregivers to take care of our patients when they can't take care of themselves?
This leads into the next question. What are we doing to support the caregivers – the nurses, doctors and everyone else in health care – who care for the patient? It seems harder than ever to connect with our purpose of healing and alleviating suffering. Dr. Tom Lee discusses an approach to incentivize health care providers and nudges all of us to think about whether patient experience is something worth paying for. Will transparency and shared purpose be enough to inspire people to deliver exceptional experience, or do we need dollars? What about other incentives such as recognition or time of? Whatever your thoughts on the subjects, I'm glad our colleagues in the field are stirring the pot and getting us all thinking. We'd love to hear your take on the issues.
With warmest thanks,
On the Cover
Linda Wilson, instructor
Interpreted research: “An assessment of patient waiting times and how they can be improved,” by Lance Henderson, Shaker Heights High School – Shaker Heights, OH
Honorable Mention Award
Cleveland Clinic eXpressions™ 2013
“The piece I did is on the subject of patient waiting times. Time may seem to drag on, as I expressed with the clock being positioned on the opposite side of where the patient is sitting. Reality might seem to be pushed to the back of the patient's mind as he waits, showed by the dull, grey setting, leaving only the patient and the clock in the main focus. The person's thoughts could become distorted because of anxiousness and fear, showed by the distortions of the clock and the patient, as well as the dark splotches scattered about the piece.”
Launched in 2005 by the Cleveland Clinic Office of Government and Community Relations' Civic Education Department, eXpressions™ is an award-winning educational initiative that utilizes creative expression to engage high school students in the exploration of science and medicine. Through project-based, peer-to-peer learning, students translate research studies conducted by Cleveland Clinic high school interns, producing artistic, literary and mathematical interpretations of the science. To learn more, please visit www.clevelandclinic.org/eXpressions.