Reflection 22: Talking Notes for College Health Care Students

Dear Reader: I was approached to address a number of undergraduate Health Care Students at one of the local colleges in Winnipeg. I was flattered and jumped at the opportunity. Following is my Talking Notes.

Sun Wukong

Winnipeg Manitoba

1 September, 2017

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Oh those eyes - The importance of human contact  

Audience: Undergraduate classes, Health Care

Time: 15 - 20 minutes

Resources: Testimonial 

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 Good day. My name is Sun Wukong for those of you whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting. I am not a health care professional like you will soon be. Rather, I am a teacher of computers and have been for about 4 years. I have been teaching in some capacity or another since the early 90s -- that's the 1990s. 

 I want to thank the college, our department head, your instructor and especially you for allowing me the time to speak to you this morning on a topic I think is vitally important in your chosen profession. The topic I am referring to is human contact. 

 I am not going to talk to you today as a computer teacher, although that is very tempting. No. What I want to discuss is the relationship between you, the health care professional and me, the patient.

 I am a cancer survivor. I survived head and neck cancer, one of 200 types of cancer. Yes, cancer Is an all-embracing word. 

 On 2 June at 07:30 a.m. I was anesthetized for a cancer operation on my right ear and neck. The various tests and scans told my health care team that is where the cancer was located. At 4:30 p.m. I woke in recovery by a rather loud lady yelling, "Wake up Brian. I gave you an extra 15 minutes sleep. It is time to rise and shine." All I could do was mumble an acknowledgement. 

 Ladies and gentlemen, this is where my story starts.

Speaker's Instruction: Draw a bed and a stick person laying prone in it. Put a whole bunch of dots on the whiteboard above the stick person. Join some of the dots to make three or four question marks. 

 Please allow me to introduce you to Sarah, an Inuit who has lived all of her life in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. She is an Elder, respected in her community as all Elders are. Her parents picked the name Sarah because they thought this name would make life easier for their daughter than a traditional one. Sarah speaks a little English.

 This rather simplistic picture that I just drew with the question marks is the perspective of what your patient is thinking when you see her for the first time on the ward. How do you think she feels? How do you think she feels since her first language is Inuit? This situation is certainly possible since the Health Science Centre (HSC) is responsible for NW Ontario, Manitoba and Nunavut. Perhaps she is more than a little unsure? Frightened? Do you realize that all the signs in HSC are in English only. This includes the Welcome booth. How welcoming is that! What is in a sign? A lot more than the letters or words it signifies.

 I spent Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday on the ward in recovery. I had a window of opportunity to watch health care professionals go about their business. I want to pass on my thoughts to you. 

 During her time on the ward, Sarah and I see you, the health care professional over and over and over again. After all, you are on a 10 day shift cycle. It is not the doctors we see most often. They come and go. I don't think that I saw the same doctor on the ward more than twice even though they do rounds twice a day. Usually there is an entourage of Residents with them learning their craft. Residents are doctors who are in the last stage of their training. Sarah and I will not see the nurses very often either. No, only if there is an urgent need. We will see you, more than once on every shift. It is up to you to build a relationship with us. 

 Following my release from the ward, When I was in the final stage of my recovery, it was the Radiation Technologists I remember because I saw them over and over again. They were not merely robotic uniforms going about their business. They were people. People I could easily identify with. They befriended me. They smiled. And I smiled too. So learning about what I am calling 'the human approach' is important. I am here to speak to you because I feel there is not too much about this approach in your oversized textbook. Its focus is on protocols. 

 Remember Sarah. (Speaker's instruction: Point to the picture on the whiteboard.) She is from Cape Dorset, Baffin Island, Nunavut. Let's pretend that this is the first time that this Elder has been out of her environment and culture. Is she more than a little lonely? Would you feel frightened and lonely if everyone around you spoke Inuit and you could not read any of the signs on the walls? Cape Dorset is a long way from Winnipeg. As a matter of fact it is just over 2,000 km away. How many of her family or friends will be visiting her? So here she is in the HSC battling a life altering and perhaps life-threatening disease. I think that you will agree with me that human compassion and companionship are called for. If Sarah ever needed a friend it is now!

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 I am thinking of the popular song Those Eyes sung by Pamela Lillard as I wrote this address. 

 This may seem too trite or obvious but human contact is the "heart and soul" of the healthcare team. Patients would not easily get well without it. And the eyes are the window into it. The technology is awe-inspiring. There is no question that the protocols and training facilitate wellness. But it is the human contact through the eyes that brings it all together. The people in the healthcare system know that. I will give two examples, expanding on the second. 

  The first happened to me in pre-op with the anesthesiologist. I refer to her as the Drug Doctor. She certainly knew the importance of and practiced human contact especially eye contact to ease me into a comfort zone. She continually talked to me and referred to me by name often in the 20 minutes or so before I went to sleep under the influence of the drugs.  

 The second occasion happened following my surgery. It was early morning about 10 hours after the operation. It was about 2.00 a.m. I had put in a question regarding my health care insurance coverage (from the Canadian Army). The head nurse on that particular shift paid me a visit. I asked him.

 "Is my expenses covered by the medical insurance that I continued following my release from the Army 25 years ago? I had never exercised the option of using it so I am concerned."

 The nurse did not simply stand by my bedside and answered the question. He bent down so that we were at eye level. At first I found this a little unsettling and surprising until I thought it through and appreciated why he did that. He knew the importance of eye contact. He understood the importance of human contact.

 "Yes, you are covered," he told me in a reassuring voice.

 "Was the underwriting company actually called and questioned?" I queried.

 "Yes it was," he replied still kneeling. You have nothing to worry about except getting better.

 I quickly fell back to sleep.

 What concerns does Sarah have? Did you ask her? Did you try talking to her? Give her a warm smile? Make eye contact? Would she like to have her hair brushed? Maybe a little lipstick? There are interpreters readily available so you can speak to someone who doesn't know your language. What I am saying is befriend Elder Sarah. That will go along way in her recovery. It will also make you feel good and leave you with the thought that you were glad you did it! It pays to take that extra step as a Health Care professional.

 What I tried to communicate to you was my thoughts having spent 3 days in a recovery ward. Thank you for listening to me. Are there any questions?

END