Comments for Patient Experience Blog http://blog.theberylinstitute.org Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:36:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Comment on Whose experience is it anyway? by Kathy Torpie http://blog.theberylinstitute.org/?p=162#comment-922 Kathy Torpie Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:36:36 +0000 http://blog.theberylinstitute.org/?p=162#comment-922 Language both reflects and shapes values. Systems will automatically act for maintaining the system itself in the face of change. For any single change to endure, the entire system has to change to maintain balance or homeostasis. The clinician/patient "them/us" divide is embedded so firmly within the traditional system of healthcare, that even the understanding of whose bed - or whose experience - it is creates a powerful change of perspective. But the system remains one of "them and us". The observer and the observed. The doer and the done to. May I suggest that for any change to be enduring we might have to address that divide itself so that when we say "our experience" it is an inclusive experience of patients, staff, and management that we are referring to. For that to happen the change has to include more than a shift in perspective or even language. I am a pychologist with experience as a patient at just about every level of care. My personal and professional experience has led me to the same conclusions that medical research and organizational theory point to - that we are all interconnected and all dependent on one another across the entire spectrum of the healthcare system. To be both effective and enduring, we need to focus on solutions that reflect this. Language both reflects and shapes values. Systems will automatically act for maintaining the system itself in the face of change. For any single change to endure, the entire system has to change to maintain balance or homeostasis. The clinician/patient “them/us” divide is embedded so firmly within the traditional system of healthcare, that even the understanding of whose bed – or whose experience – it is creates a powerful change of perspective. But the system remains one of “them and us”. The observer and the observed. The doer and the done to.

May I suggest that for any change to be enduring we might have to address that divide itself so that when we say “our experience” it is an inclusive experience of patients, staff, and management that we are referring to. For that to happen the change has to include more than a shift in perspective or even language.

I am a pychologist with experience as a patient at just about every level of care. My personal and professional experience has led me to the same conclusions that medical research and organizational theory point to – that we are all interconnected and all dependent on one another across the entire spectrum of the healthcare system. To be both effective and enduring, we need to focus on solutions that reflect this.

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