ISRS Seminar – The Lonely Patient – Marie Stern (Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Hull, UK)
The seminar will take place on Thursday 9th February 2023 at 4 pm of UK time /11.00 US EST time /5pm Polish time / 5pm Malta /6pm Israeli time / 6pm Turkish time / 11pm Hong Kong / 1am next day Melbourne.
The seminar will be held in the MS Teams application. If you want to join, click here.
Marie Stern (Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Hull, UK)
The Lonely Patient
I have spent a great deal of time in hospitals. They are often huge communities that feel like towns, and there may be thousands of staff, who are ‘at home’ there. For many patients, these communities are frightening places where the environment is alien and the staff have their own language. The illness or injury that takes a patient into a hospital is itself stressful because it is the cause of pain and fear. Being afraid in an alien environment can most definitely be a lonely experience even though the patient is surrounded by people.
We should feel that hospitals are there for us, to lead us to healthy and full lives, but it can feel as if they see us on their terms and do not always care for our emotional health. I work with local hospitals to improve patient experience and patient safety. I listen to patients, hear their concerns and use their stories, and my own, to train clinical staff and shape hospital policy. In a world where medicine is high-tech, many of my recommendations take us back to the most fundamental aspects of patient care by looking at the relationships between patients and staff and considering how we can lessen the loneliness of the patient.