'On the seventh day of Christmas Care Opinion gave to me... Humanity shining bright, a gift we hold in our hearts so tight.'
Being Human - What is Humanity as a value and why is it important?
At Care Opinion, we have 5 values that we are very proud to practice in everything we do, and one of these is 'Humanity'.
Christmas is often a time for people to connect with each other, and being human is a key element of this, but why is it so important?
We live in a world where labels, job titles, background, class, race, sex and many other factors, are often given more importance than what we have in common. If we take away these labels, we are all human in the end. We all have hearts, minds, emotions, needs, wants and dreams. We all feel pain, we all want compassion and we all want the best for those we care about. We all have good and bad experiences and we all want to be heard and acknowledged in different aspects of life.
Emotions, as mentioned above, are extremely important to us all, and the way we feel during an experience, says a lot to those listening. I looked at how people felt during their health and care experiences since January 2023, across the UK, and you can see here how people have felt:
You can see from the above image, that many people wanted to say 'Thank you' for their care! When someone experiences health or care services, they are receiving the care as a human being, and staff are helping them as human beings too. Here are a few wonderful stories where people have said they were treated like a human being...
At the Heart
Perhaps something to think about, is how patients and service-users are put at the centre of their care. At Care Opinion, we talk about keeping people 'at the heart' of everything we do. A lot of services are now focussing on how to make sure people are receiving person-centred care. I thought this was a lovely example of when this has gone right...
The Conversation
When delivering training to responders, we always ask people to look at how the person felt, and to be empathetic towards the person and their experience. Even in positive feedback, people are often going through difficult experiences with their, or their relative's health. Patients appreciate being listened to and really do want their feedback to lead to change. Replying to stories is a wonderful opportunity to connect with people and show that you care. This response from one of our Star Responders, Lee-Anne Abel, from NHS Tayside, is a beautiful example of this:
Feeling good about what you do
Of course, the beauty of online feedback is that it allows the connection to go both ways. Positive feedback on Care Opinion will include staff names, if mentioned by the person, so they can know they are doing a great job! Staff deserve to know when they are getting things right and should be celebrated. Further more, good practice can be repeated and continued within services based on positive comments. Here you can see some feedback from staff in Perth & Kinross Health & Social Care Partnership, on how they felt about using Care Opinion:
Realistic Medicine
I recently attended a Realistic Medicine event in NHS Tayside, which encapsulated a lot of what I mention in this blog. You can read about the event here: NHS Tayside Realistic Medicine Conference December 2023 | Care Opinion
A final note
Being human is important and wonderful when you create positive, meaningful connections. Together, we can keep working on improving and caring for each other on a human level for the benefit of everyone. This is the beauty of Humanity.