Caring for the Caregiver: I ’m Not OK, But That’s OK

“We’re here to serve others, and they’re important. But they’re not more important than we are.”1 Retired EMT and iconic author Thom Dick shared this consideration in his aptly titled book, People Care. Thom went on to explain how valuable each of us are as caregivers and that most importantly, “first things first: take care of yourself.1 To some, this mindset may seem quite self-centered and in total contrast to what many of us have come to live our careers by: that we are here to serve others and the patient always comes first. Healthcare systems that have modernized how they deliver services have moved away from systems-centric processes to patient-centric models. Many EMS agencies, for example, are transforming the linear way in which we have historically provided service—wait for someone to call 9-1-1, answer the phone, send an ambulance and transport to a hospital—to the model of mobile integrated health (MIH), which offers proactive options and alternate healthcare pathways that are much more than just conveyance to a hospital by an ambulance. As these new models are developed, the adoption of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Triple Aim as the framework for performance optimization has been a common point of reference. The three dimensions of the Triple Aim include: Improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction); Improving the health of populations; and Reducing the per capita cost of healthcare.2 Although ...
Source: JEMS Administration and Leadership - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: EMS Insider Exclusive Articles Resiliency Operations Administration and Leadership Source Type: news