Design Thinking Paradigm:  Incorporating patients needs and experiences in medical procedures

One of the topic of discussion and debate in medical understanding is on how to incorporate individual’s experience of illness into medical practice. The irony within the experience of illness and treatment is that medical experts know what is best for their patient. Medicine is always on the run to restore health and in this run the needs, wants, and the experience of illness is often transformed and reconstituted medically,  marginalizes the patient from himself or herself. There is an imbalance of power between medical authorities and the patient. The article “Operating on a child’s Heart: A pedagogical View of Hospitalization” by Stephen J. Smith argues that careful attention to patients (child’s) experiences and needs are often neglected by the surrounding medical personnel during   hospitalization. He makes his argument through the lens of a child’s experience.

 Empathize

The author begins by narrating the journey of his son’s experience of hospitalization and makes a strong connection with his readers.  His narrative builds and extends to thought provoking questions, 

“To what extend does the child-oriented understanding of medical procedures carry its share of responsibility for the child’s life?” “Whose interest is being served, the child’s or someone else?”  The child’s experience and approach to hospitalization and the effect of it on the child’s future instigates into readers the disconnection between medical personnel (who may have power over) and the patients and calls for the need to bridge this gap.

Define

The author defines the problem and possibilities from a philosophical context. The definition is consistent with my interpretation of the issue. I am able to relate and understand it from my own lens since I had faced similar experience where my needs, feeling of my body, and experience was ignored and overpowered by the views and demands of the medical experts and medical procedures.

Ideate:

The author recommends that medical personnel dealing with the child and carrying out the medical procedure should be mindful of the child's needs and be sensitive to his/her experience of hospitalization. He calls for finding a balance between “what is thought to be good for the child against the fundamental question of what is the good for this particular child” Furthermore, the author gives an awaking call to parents & families who are part of the child’s daily life to speak up for the child during his/her hospitalization. The article provides a strong argument by providing sufficient unbiased evidence to support its conclusion and recommendation.

Suggestions and recommendations 

•  Family physician to be more sensitive to patient’s needs and experience. One way this could be achieved is by practicing a narrative approach to understanding patient’s problem. Attention should be given to both the ‘ big picture’ and the details of a patient’s life and health.
• Asking patient's open ended questions to express their bodily feeling
• Increasing visit time between the patients and the physician. In the current practice environment increasing administrative requirements makes it very challenging for physicians to spend more time with their patients face to face.
•  Educating patients to speak up and question their medical concerns
• Educating parents and those connected closely with child’s daily living to speak up for the child.
• Having a protocol that requires key medical personnel dealing with the child and performing medical procedure be well aware of the child needs and concern

Prototype

The issue raised here is more subjective therefore quantifying it would be challenging, however by raising this issue we are opening up discussion to understand medical and its practices in a broader perspective. Such understanding would help medical personnel be more sensitive towards their patient’s needs, experiences, and understand the importance of incorporating it into their medical practice.

• Having a curriculum, that emphases on patient doctor relationship, for trainee doctors as a course ( I suspect they might be having one), and for practicing doctors as professional development program may help bridge the listening gap between Physicans and patients . The curriculum should be made mandatory for practicing physicians and be required to take every three years.  Such professional development program would help physicians meet the demands of the current society and know and understand themselves and their role as a physician as well their patients better.
• Increasing visit time. The current visit time is less than 10 minutes. Increasing it would enable more dialogues between the physician and their patients and more patient participation.

Relating to classroom and pedagogy
When making lesson plan, activities and lesson notes I always relate back to this focused question “whose interest is being served”, the students, mine, schools or the demands of the curriculum. I find this does not only guide me to make activities according to students needs, but also helps me understand my students approach to learning and creating a classroom environment that gives a sense of belonging and ownership to my all students.

Hope you enjoyed reading my posting. I am looking forward for your productive feedback