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Three pivots for returning to the best principles of medicine

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Listen carefully and ask the right questions. “We need to listen carefully to people and ask what matters to them, not what’s the matter with them,” she says. Also ask what happened to them. “By listening through that lens, it opens up a curiosity. How do you capture [patient] nuance in the electronic records? How does that nuance not get lost? We have to ask the right questions.”

In an NEJM Catalyst text and video piece, Anna Roth, R.N., health director of Contra Costa County, Calif., lays out three pivots for returning to the best principles of medicine. They are:

Challenge your beliefs. “Beliefs set boundaries. Beliefs are the basis of our boundaries.” Roth provides an example: When she was CEO during the H1N1 epidemic, the hospital strengthened its visitor policy. For infection control reasons, they did not allow children ages 12 and under to visit, which meant denying an 8-year-old from saying goodbye to his grandfather — who was also his primary provider — in the critical care unit. “We prioritized infection control over love, and it was something we didn’t have to do.”

Trust people. “We need to trust people. We need to trust our workers,” says Roth. Continuing the story about the 8-year-old, she describes how upset staff were that his grandfather couldn’t see him. They came to her office to explain the situation and that it didn’t need to happen — they could’ve just put a mask on the boy, instead of following the policy that led to this tragedy.”

To read and hear her, please hit this link.

February 1918 drawing by Marguerite Martyn of a visiting nurse in St. Louis, Mo., with medicine and babies

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