Tuesday, May 27, 2008
WHAT WE KNOW NOW
Last Thursday, along with MITSS Board Chair, Karen Moore, I had the opportunity of meeting with the Caritas Quality Committee at Caritas Holy Name Hospital in Methuen, MA. The Quality Committee is made up of key leaders from all of the Caritas Hospitals. It was a great discussion on the changes in culture over the last several years, especially in the area of disclosure and apology. The conversation was truly focused on the support following adverse medical events (which we all know is MITSS’s passion!). A courageous CEO from one of the hospitals admitted that although we are doing a better job with disclosure and apology, we really aren’t doing well with supporting the staff. It became so clear to me in that moment – of course, we aren’t doing a good job with support. We didn’t know what we didn’t know, and, until recently, there really wasn’t much out there about the emotional impact on clinicians. But, now that we know, shouldn’t we have systems in place that can provide support that is timely and accessible for both clinicians and patients and their families?
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It seems true that there is a lot of talk about the need for emotional support for clinicians, which assumes that an adverse event leaves an emotional impact. This makes intuitive sense. However, correct me if I'm wrong, there still isn't an adequate body of research regarding the nature of the emotional impact on the clinician (or the patient for that matter). We "know" it's there from experience, but in a world that values stats, we don't have much to hang our hat on. I would love for more people to take up this as a research issue. That will really help guide the interventions for the clinician's in the most useful way. It's great that the workplaces are willing to move ahead of the research in this area. That shows a lot of compassion for their staff, however, the work still needs to be done on the research level.
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