A Vision of Thriving

Across the Healthcare Continuum

Good morning!

It’s Sunday, August 14 — and last night’s wind blew in a humid stillness for this cloudy morning.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about words and stories. The words we choose, the tales we weave, the seeds of ideas we plant when we share.

There’s a bee visiting my coffee cup right now — Is she wondering why there’s a heart-shaped lilac-blossom butterfly on my cup?

A cicada watching over my shoulder for quite sometime, has now decided to buzz past my ear and wake me up completely. The caffeine pumping into my fingertips now.

A whisper of worry about work — life’s work, vocations, homework, housework, etc.

In all our words is a story. The story of the morning, the work, the attention. I find myself living through and discovering stories that combine “work” and my “personal life”, and get me wondering what’s unfolding before me. I hear stories of folks lost in Healthcare, I’ve had my own journey through Healthcare, and I keep coming back to the same sentiment: It shouldn’t be this complicated.

And since it is this complicated, I feel called to shine a light on ways to make Healthcare easier to navigate. To highlight lived experiences that help people see how it should go, and how it tends to play out in real life.

Which brings me to writing and storytelling.

When I discovered Substack, I didn’t know what I wanted to share. I saw an opportunity to flesh out my thoughts, and get some outside perspective. I think it’s a start, but in the end, it all just feels like words. “Thoughts become words, words become actions” — Wookiefoot says it best in their song Don’t Stop.

“If you’re going through hell, don’t stop!”

As I’ve continued sharing, I can see my action items becoming clearer. I notice I tend to overgeneralize — “our” instead of “my”, “we” instead of “I”. I’m trying to remember, I speak for myself. But I’m not only sharing my own stories. Compiling stories, helping to uncover the lessons, and using these stories to light the path forward.

Here’s what the path forward looks like for me:

I’m a nurse, and am living and working in my dream job as a home health educator. What a gift.

What I have seen throughout my 13-year nursing career is… the same problems repeated over, and over, and over. At all levels of care. I mention all levels of care, because the issues in Healthcare include hospitals, nursing homes, group homes, home health, hospice, clinics, etc.

When problems are repeated over time, patterns become recognizable. Peace/War, Feast/Famine. But in rapid cycle. These recurrent problems don’t seem to be getting better. And now have been worsened and hastened by the pandemic and political/social unrest. We can start to see the opportunity here: to shine a light on the problems (we need to measure and define the problems so we can identify how to fix them and where we’re heading).

Formal Healthcare (Healthcare companies) exists for a reason, but must function within the rules and regulations put forth by the pocketbook of the insurers/payers (private insurance and Medicare). Whoever is paying the bills makes the rules.

All payers have the same fundamental goals: to reduce costs and improve the quality of health and care to the consumer.

And the Healthcare companies have the same goals, give or take, with the addition of also caring for the workers providing that high-quality care. The companies are also tasked with caring for the humans performing the work.

If we can agree to give the benefit of the doubt, that this is the goal of all individuals across the Healthcare continuum, then below is where I see our path forward.

Vision for the Path Forward

Figuring out a way to declutter Healthcare, and clarify pathways so that Healthcare consumers (and their caregivers), and care providers (Healthcare Workers), understand the options and make truly informed decisions, while also receiving compassionate and timely care, and feeling supported and safe at whatever level of care they choose (home, facility, office, clinic, etc.).

We want to understand the options, make truly informed decisions, and receive compassionate care in a timely manner.

Sounds simple — right? Should be what’s happening, no?

Don’t you “should” on me!

Stories from within Healthcare (mine and those around me — patients, family, friends) tell us that some parts of this are lacking. Not intentionally. Benefit of the doubt means that nobody is out there trying to make this complicated. But there are opportunities to make Healthcare better and safer.

Get back to what was intended — thriving.

So this is me level-setting. We’re NOT ALL OUT TO GET EACH OTHER. It’s not US vs. THEM. We all have a common goal in mind. What we’re missing, and where I see the light forward, is collaborating between and amongst these systems of care (individuals, disciplines, companies, organizations) so we can declutter and move forward, and make Healthcare feel less scary and unknown. Get back to what was intended — thriving. For patients and those providing the care.

As I was recording the audio, I tried to let my brain think out loud to a “solution”, but, well… it’s not quite clear to me yet.

Thank you for reading and/or listening. I welcome your feedback in the comments! Make sure to put your feet up and take some breaths today!

Love,

Jessie