How partnering with your patient's support system can improve outcomes
You do your best to speak clearly, be specific, and give your patients the time they need. But are they really hearing you? A health buddy may be just what the doctor ordered. Discover how a health buddy can help ensure your great efforts turn into great outcomes.
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You try to make every patient encounter clear and direct and you encourage patients to ask questions. But you may be delivering some life-changing news, highly technical information, or critical steps to take. How can you be sure patients with COPD hear you clearly, fully comprehend or remember what you say, or even remember what they want to ask? One way to help ensure these encounters are successful, and patients leave with clear information, is to encourage them to bring a buddy.
The buddy system
Call it a health buddy, healthcare partner, or informal caregiver. Patients with COPD need support, especially during appointments or discharge from the hospital. A health buddy is critical to ensuring your patient leaves with the right information and is set up for success at home. They can also help you get a more complete picture of the patient, filling in details some patients may neglect to mention. They can also help your patient feel more at ease and confident about the encounter because they know someone else is hearing the same information in real time. A health buddy gives you the opportunity to engage with the patient in a more complete and meaningful way.
Contributors
The COPD foundation can help you start the conversation about health buddies with your patients
A health buddy can not only reinforce, but also encourage the patient. It only increases our chances at success.”
Christine Cunningham, RRT
Director of Clinical Services, CHI Health at Home
Should you require a buddy?
Most institutions don’t require a health buddy at every appointment. But should they? Here are four reasons to consider requiring a health buddy:
Your patient may have a lot on his or her mind. Add stress or anxiety, and there’s a good chance that the important information you’re sharing may not be retained. Recalling it with accuracy later and putting your plan into action can be even tougher. A health buddy can be a second set of ears, listening to (and writing down) the critical information you share and helping to ensure it gets implemented and adhered to.
When a buddy is present, patients could have a greater sense of accountability. That’s because the buddy has taken time out of their day to be there for the patient. Often, the patient doesn’t want to disappoint, which creates a deeper level of responsibility.
A health buddy can go a long way in helping your patient adhere to the treatment goals you set forth. From picking up medications, keeping track of when each medication is taken or missed and encouraging the patient to stay on track with your care plan, a health buddy provides an invaluable resource.
A health buddy can support your patient beyond the appointment.1 For example, they can gather information about COPD, its progression, prognosis and treatment options to help keep your patient informed. They are also there to provide emotional and psychosocial support, which can be invaluable when living with a chronic disease like COPD.
Partnering with a patient’s support system
So partnering with families or the support system, the community, whoever is partnering with that patient is extremely important in improving outcomes both for the patient and for health systems.”
Becky Anderson, RRT
Manager, Respiratory Care Services Sanford Medical Center
Who can be a buddy?
A family member is an obvious choice to be your patient’s informal caregiver. But patients don’t always have family members nearby or who can leave work for frequent appointments. Here are three alternative places to look when seeking a health buddy:
Many faith-based organizations have a strong support system ready to mobilize when someone in the community needs care. Encourage your patient to ask if someone in their faith community will be their healthcare partner.
Care agencies provide myriad services and become very close to the patients they assist. If your patient has an in-home caregiver they like and trust, encourage them to accompany your patient to all of his or her appointments.
Whether your patient lives independently, in a senior community or in a group home, neighbors often are available and willing to help. Encourage your patient to ask a trusted neighbor or friend to be their healthcare buddy.
You get a variety of different people as health buddies. They may not want their daughter or son, it may be a neighbor.”
Christine Cunningham, RRT
Director of Clinical Services, CHI Health at Home
Help for the Helpers
A health buddy is there for your patient, but they don’t necessarily know of all the support services available to them. Here are three resources you can share with informal caregivers that help them take care of themselves and be better buddies.
Family Caregiver Alliance
The Family Caregiver Alliance supports and sustains the important work of families nationwide caring for adult loved ones with chronic, disabling health conditions. In addition to classes, events, webinars, and videos, there are disease-state–specific fact sheets, support groups, and a state-specific care locator that helps caregivers identify public, nonprofit, and private programs and services nearest to their loved one.
Caring.com
This offers state-specific information on senior care, including resources and living facilities. There is also a COPD-specific support group for caregivers.
Eldercare.gov
This is a public service of the US Administration on Aging. It connects caregivers to community services by location or topic.
Caring for someone with COPD can be challenging
Results from one study showed that2:
of informal caregivers had health-related problems due to the caregiving provided
had leisure/social-related problems
recognized having profession-related problems when they are of working age
Partnering with your patient’s support system—be it family, a neighbor, or community member—can go a long way in improving outcomes both for the patient and for health systems. Encourage your COPD patients to always have a health buddy with them to ensure what you say is heard and implemented.
The COPD foundation can help you start the conversation about health buddies with your patients
Further reading
References 2. Miravitlles M, Peña-Longobardo LM, Oliva-Moreno J, Hidalgo-Vega Á. Caregivers’ burden in patients with COPD. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2015:10 347-356.
1. Bryant J, Mansfield E, Boyes AW, Waller A, Sanson-Fisher R, Regan T. Involvement of informal caregivers in supporting patients with COPD: a review of intervention studies. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2016; 11:1587-1596.
