Monday, April 15, 2013
Asking three questions can make health care safer, easier
Perhaps the best piece of advice I have ever received about
negotiating the health care system is to “ask questions.” Being hospitalized can be an
intimidating experience, but if you don’t understand what is happening to you,
it intensifies the fear. How can
you care for yourself when you return home if you don’t understand your
medication regimen, or how to properly self-inject your newly-prescribed
insulin?
Health care workers often use acronyms when explaining
things. If your doctor or nurse
says you have “UTI” it really isn’t so frightening once you understand that
only means “urinary tract infection.”
Ask questions — it can make things easier, and safer.
I was hospitalized twice for short periods and still found
the experience somewhat intimidating, even though I was a registered nurse
working in that same hospital. I
didn’t take any medicine handed to me unless I asked the name of the medicine,
what it was for, and why it was prescribed for me.
Subsequent to my hospitalization experiences, I read about a
program called “Ask Me 3,” created by the National Patient Safety
Foundation. “Ask Me 3” is a
patient education program designed to promote communication between health care
providers and patients in order to improve health outcomes. The program
encourages patients to understand the answers to three questions:
• What is my main problem?
• What do I need to do?
• Why is it important for me to do this?
Patients should be encouraged to ask their providers these
three simple but essential questions -- in every health care interaction.
Likewise,
providers should always encourage their patients to understand the answers to
these three questions.
Come to think
of it, getting the answers to these three questions is probably wise for all
encounters in life. Whether dealing with health issues, childrearing, or
education pursuits, it makes sense that understanding will result in improved
outcomes.
Alice Facente is a community education nurse for the Backus
Health System. To comment on this column or others, visit the Healthy
Living blog at www.backushospital.org/backus-blogs or e-mail Ms. Facente or any of the Healthy Living columnists at healthyliving@wwbh.org.
# posted by ----------------- @ 2:06 PM 
