Challenge...what challenge? The choice is yours!

Hello readers,

For this edition of our blog it was suggested that I could write about "a challenging or difficult patient." My initial reaction was that ‘I couldn't possibly do that, i wouldn't want to offend.' I was intending to write about the plans for the Birth Choices Clinic at the Hospital and the more I thought about this the more I thought that I could write about both and perhaps I should. I thought about why health professionals find some patients challenging and why some people may appear more challenging than others.

Health care is part of everyday life for lots of us and in everyday life we come across people who we find more challenging than others so why should healthcare be any different.

People coming to hospital for whatever reason tend to be at the very least apprehensive, others can be very frightened. For those who work in hospitals we are used to these surroundings, we usually know where places are and how systems work, this often isn't the case for those of you coming to receive care. Anxiety presents itself in various ways and we all have different ways of expressing it. Our role as health professionals is to try and allay this anxiety as much as we can and as with all things some people have the skills to do this and others may not be quite as adept. We all try to be tolerant of each other, when this doesn't happen this is when situations can become challenging.

Some health professionals will find women or patients who don't want to receive the care recommended to them a challenge and may forget that we are all entitled to choose which care we receive or don't receive. Our role in giving care is to give information regarding the benefits and risks so informed choices can be made we are all different with different beliefs and outlooks on life and we all need to be aware of this.

Women having babies in this country are often well informed about pregnancy care and many have strong feelings about what they would like or not like for themselves and their babies, mostly these choices will be discussed with the midwife giving care and women will be reassured. Sometimes this can be seen as challenging and women's request may not fit in to the usual plan of care for pregnant women in these cases women and their partners need to have time to discuss things in greater detail. If this doesn't happen women are left feeling anxious and afraid about the care they think they will receive and can then feel as though he have to fight to have the care they believe is the best for them.

Here at Ipswich Hospital we are passionate about empowering women and their partners and want them to be involved with planning the care for their pregnancy. With this in mind we are in the process of developing a birth choices clinic, here we are able to discuss women's previous childbirth experiences and/or discuss their requests for care, which may be outside the national guidance for care. We will listen to women and their partners thoughts and requests and help to plan care by giving the relevant information to help with the decision making process. Following on from this a plan of care can be made including contingency plans if things change along the way, this plan will be recorded in the notes so all care providers involved in giving care will be aware of the plan.

We have started seeing a number of women and their partners in this clinic but more information will be distributed to health care providers and soon to be posted on Ipswich Hospital’s website in the coming weeks.