Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you're probably all too aware of the tragic shooting in Arizona. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was hit by at least one round , straight in the head, from an automatic pistol shot by a unstable constituent.
As Congresswoman Giffords recovered, we, the media hogs, got daily reports on her condition. We all rejoiced as her condition went from critical to serious to stable. Now that she's in a rehab facility in Houston, we're all breathing a sigh of relief that her life is no longer in jeopardy.
For the first time in a long time, we got to see and hear about her condition being upgraded, week by week. But, from a patient care perspective, how do those conditions effect the family?
The family of Representative Giffords had to also celebrate every time her condition was upgraded. How would they react if her condition was downgraded from serious to critical? How much confidence did they place in the conditions reported by her attending docs?
In my personal hospitalization, I don't recall there ever being any formal conditions. Would that have mattered to me as a patient? To my family? Chances are, yes.
In "Stethoscope" and especially in "I'm Here" I've written about how health care pros can compliment the patient's improvement, no matter how small that improvement is. Even just saying, "This wound is healing nicely" or "The incision site isn't getting any worse" can instill some faith that the patient is, indeed, on his/her way to recovery.
Be very careful about reporting the conditions of patients-always. But, if there's a way to report the patient's condition as an improvement, be liberal with the reports.
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