If caregivers really want to understand what stroke survivors are going through, they can put themselves in their shoes—literally.
That is what University of Maine student Jana Kenney did. She spent a week living as a recovering stroke patient at Russell Park Rehabilitation and Living Center in Lewiston, Maine. She learned about the frustration, dependence, loneliness, and exhaustion stroke patients experience, and the facility got insights into ways it can make life and recovery easier for its patients.
Kenney was part of the Learning by Living program offered by the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine Department of Geriatric Medicine. “The students don’t get course credit for this program,” Lori Pomelow, Russell Park administrator, says. “The students do it on their own. They come to experience what life is like for their future patients.”
As part of the program, Kenney kept a journal about her experience, and a year later Pomelow and her team are still taking information from this to identify ways to improve resident quality of life.
“We have changed many things. For example, we learned that the admissions process is overwhelming and can make the patient anxious and confused,” she says, adding, “We realized that we didn’t have to do all of these things at once."
Pomelow and her team also learned that they needed to make sure the environment was set up appropriately. “Jana says that it was awkward for her to get out of bed or get items off the bedside table because the environment wasn’t set up to help her help herself. This was so frustrating for her that she told us right away,” says Pomelow.
“We now look at what limitations we are imposing by how the environment is set up. We try to make it conducive to helping patients maintain and improve functioning,” she says. For example, Pomelow and her team looked at how the bathrooms are set up and what assistive devices are likely to help improve each patient’s functional abilities.
Patients Need Independence
Kenney shared with her caregivers that she wanted to do things for herself as much as she could. However, she found that staff assumed that she wanted them to do things for her.
For instance, the nurses put her crushed medications in applesauce and fed them to her. In fact, Kenney wanted to feed herself, and she wanted her medications in vanilla pudding. “We realized that we need to find out what the patients want so that we can support them accordingly,” Pomelow says. The experience reminded Pomelow and her team that they need to remember that, even when patients can’t communicate verbally, they have interests and crave attention and human interaction.
“Jana took it upon herself to pop her head into activities and seek out people she could talk to. We realized that we need to find out what people like to do and make sure they know things such as where the computers are and what the wi-fi password is,” says Pomelow. “We need to get people’s life stories so that we can have meaningful conversations with them.”
Finally, Kenney’s feedback reminded staff that mealtimes are important for stroke patients. She says that no one asked her where she wanted to sit during meals. She was playing the role of a stroke patient who required pureed foods and assistance with eating. As a result, staff put her with patients who had similar needs.
“We realized that we need to take new patients to the dining hall, tell them the hours, and let them know that they can sit wherever they want,” says Pomelow.
The results have been significant. Pomelow says, “Resident/patient satisfaction survey results have improved significantly. People tell us that they feel like they are treated like human beings and that the personal attention helped.”