Takeaway
Having my own set of guidelines has helped me to continuously improve. One of my favorites is consciously learning something new every day.
Lifelong Learning in Clinical Excellence | November 7, 2024 | 2 min read
By Julie Caffrey, DO, MS, Johns Hopkins Medicine
I will never forget getting paged in the middle of the night for a patient with nearly 90% total body surface area burns due to an explosion. Our team worked feverishly throughout the night to stabilize him. Throughout his six-month hospital stay, there were many ups and downs. After multiple episodes of sepsis, severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, multi-organ failure, and many instances where the team just didn’t think he would pull through, he survived the unsurvivable.
I’m often asked how I can do such a job where there is often such little hope and a high likelihood of death. And then I think about those patients who do survive, and don’t just survive, but thrive.
When I think about clinical excellence, I think of my parents, and the rules that they taught us as children and young adults. These are four rules I learned from them that I live by every day and help me to give better patient care:
1. Be a good human.
We are often with patients and families on the worst day of their lives, and must show compassion, empathy, integrity, and kindness. Patients and their families need to feel seen and heard—listen. They should be allowed to express grief, frustration, and sorrow. Give them the space and grace to express feelings and emotions.
2. Do the right thing even when it’s hard.
Practicing patient-centered care is of the utmost importance. This concept goes all the way back to Dr. William Osler who reminded us to treat the patient with the disease, not just the disease. Patients have their own values and needs, and it’s important to value the patient’s voice when creating the care plan. It can be hard for a clinician not to push their own values and ideals onto the patients and families. But listen to the values and needs of the patient, which can sometimes be hard when those values and ideals do not align with your own.
3. Learn something new every day.
Striving for improvement and excellence while remaining humble is essential for providing excellent clinical care. We are never at our peak. We can always improve. It’s important to continue learning something new, whether communication skills, leadership skills, developing new skills or hobbies, and especially learning from our patients, students, residents, and staff.
4. Take responsibility for the future.
Medicine is rapidly changing, whether new technologies, the use of AI, or how we educate the next generation of healthcare professionals. By leading the change and taking responsibility, we can ensure clinical excellence and quality of care for the future. While we continue to strive for clinical excellence, we must remember to teach future clinicians the basics. We must teach them to follow the rules.
This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.