Positive and negative experiences make lasting memories, shaping and directing our future decisions and planning. Keeping our focus on delivering genuine care to patients will help them better understand their diagnosis, keep as comfortable as possible, and be confident in their health care team. Eileen Rubin shares her story of how a poor experience of care motivated her to make a change.
When Rubin was hospitalized with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in 1995, the then 33-year-old attorney and her family were left feeling overwhelmed, confused, and often downright angry at the callousness they perceived in so many of the physicians and other caregivers who trooped through her room.
Despite the fact that she credits those people with saving her life, she walked out of the hospital nine weeks later feeling as if neither she nor her family really received the kind of compassionate care anyone in that kind of life-threatening position deserves.
Five years later she decided it was time to do something about it….
Read further in this recent article published by the American Association for Respiratory Care.
