Healing with Heart from Moss Communications

Considering the Patient's Point of View

Healing with Heart: Inspirations for Health Care Professionals is a collection of vignettes that remind us why we went into health care in the first place. It is easy to get so caught up in the busy, day-to-day demands on our time that we dismiss the basics beyond the technology of what we do. Moss Communications published Healing with Heart to offer the gift of stories that will trigger reminders and re-ignite the passion of all of us who have direct patient care and those who support them.

In this reflection, Considering the Patient’s Point of View, we are reminded of what the patient is experiencing when he or she is in the hospital. We are also encouraged to acknowledge the humanity of our colleagues by taking a moment to consider what they may be experiencing at a given moment. We are asked to look a second time at a patient or colleague and reflect on his or her state of mind. Healing with Heart is all about re-connecting with one another and with our own heart. Here is an excerpt from Considering the Patient’s Point of View from Healing with Heart:


If we want to provide the best possible clinical care and service, then we have to approach our patients and colleagues with the openness of learners. Too often, we fail to open ourselves up to see that a patient is feeling vulnerable and afraid, and is appealing to us for help. When people are at home, they are relaxed and comfortable largely because it’s familiar and predictable. But for most patients, a hospital is an unfamiliar world; one that is foreign and can make them feel uneasy.

The next time you are with a patient or colleague, look twice. The first glance reveals the usual way we think of them; it is always limited. The second provides an opportunity to see them in a new way…