The values of patient and family-centered care are incorporated throughout interactions with patients and/or their families
- Patient and family-centered care is driven by the goal to meet the needs of patients and their family in all aspects of the healthcare interaction. It is a model within which providers seek to partner with patients and families to identify and satisfy the full range of patient needs and preferences while being guided by core values1-3:
- Respect: Consideration for people’s wishes, concerns, values, priorities, perspectives and strengths
- Human dignity: Treating people as whole and unique human beings, not as problems or diagnoses
- Patients as leaders: Patients are experts in their own lives. Follow the lead of patients with respect to information giving, decision making, care in general and involvement of others
- Collaboration: Members of the multidisciplinary team aim to reduce fragmentation and enhance the quality and safety of care provided to patients4
- Patient and family-centered care is being adopted across the world by those in all fields of healthcare including the MRT professions. The model and its values form a cornerstone of these best practice guidelines – underpinning and informing all domains within these documents.
- The CAMRT Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice reflect the importance of patient and family-centered care in the MRT professions, stressing the importance of respect, dignity and patient advocacy throughout1,2.
- The primary opportunity for the MRT to affect patient and family-centered care comes through direct interaction with the patient3-8:
- Respect patient values, expressed needs and the choices they make
- Make the patient the focus of attention for the duration of the visit
- Listen to and ask patients about their concerns to let them know that their best interests are a priority7
- Respect the patient’s presence in a room — avoid social conversations that do not involve/include the patient
- Take the opportunity to identify and discuss patient and family concerns
- Alleviate fear and anxiety by answering questions and providing information
- Respect a patient’s right to confidentiality, including requesting their permission to hold discussions with others present (e.g., family members)
- Follow the patient’s lead to set the tone of conversation
- Use open-ended questions to establish the patient as leader
- Provide the patient with options where available, involve them in decisions
- Make adjustments where possible to provide a more comfortable experience for the patient, for example, music has been successfully used to alleviate anxiety and fear9
Canadian Association of medical radiation technologists. Code of Ethics. CAMRT. June 2008. Available from: http://www.camrt.ca/mrt-profession/professional-resources/code-of-ethics/. [Accessed 3 Nov 2014]
Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care. Available from: http://www.ipfcc.org/. Accessed 22 March 2012.
Canadian Medical Association. Putting Patients First®: Patient-centred collaborative care. A discussion paper. July 2007. Available from: https://studylib.net/doc/18496961/patient-centred-collaborative-care. [Accessed 8 Jan 2019]
Frampton S, et al. Patient Centered Care Improvement Guide. Planetree and Picker Institute, 2008. Available from: https://planetree.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Patient-Centered-Care-Improvement-Guide-10.10.08.pdf. [Accessed 7 Jan 2019]
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. Person-and Family-Centred Care. RNAO.ca. 2015. Available from: https://rnao.ca/sites/rnao-ca/files/FINAL_Web_Version_0.pdf. [Accessed 7 Jan 2019]
Reynolds A. Patient-centered care. Radiol Technol 2009;81(2):133–147.
Frampton S, et al. Patient Centered Care Improvement Guide: Practical approaches for building a patient-centred culture. Planetree and Picker Institute, 2008. Available from: https://planetree.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Patient-Centered-Care-Improvement-Guide-10.10.08.pdf. [Accessed 7 Jan 2019]
Agwu K, Okoye I. The effect of music on the anxiety levels of patients undergoing hysterosalpingography. Radiography. 2007;13:122-125.
Anderson C. Is Music Therapy an Effective Way to Reduce Distress and Increase Coping Skills in Pediatric Oncology Patients during their First Radiation Therapy Treatment? J Med Radiat Sci. 2014;45(2):178-179.