May 28, 2024
Patient advisor Karen Moffat helped create My Next Steps, a guide which helps patients ask questions as they get ready for discharge. Photo supplied.
Story by Jane Chamberlin
Do I know which medications to take?
Do I have enough bandages?
Will I need home care?
These are just some of the questions that raced through Karen Moffat¡¯s mind as she prepared to leave hospital after spinal surgery.
Looking back on her medical history, she wishes she¡¯d had the My Next Steps: Getting Ready to Leave the Hospital guide. It¡¯s a resource Moffat helped to develop as a patient advisor with the Primary Health Care program. Today, she¡¯s excited to see care providers getting it into patients¡¯ hands across Â鶹ӳ».
Part of the Home to Hospital to Home Transitions project, My Next Steps is on the Safe Discharge Checklist on Connect Care as part of the discharge-readiness orientation. My Next Steps coaches patients on asking questions of their care team, and offers resources on how to go home safely from hospital.
¡°It reminds you about things like having a family member at your discharge conversation, and how to call Health Link,¡± says Moffat. ¡°It encourages you to keep asking questions until you understand, even if it feels uncomfortable. When you get home with that list of new medications, you¡¯ll be glad you did.¡±
While these tips might seem obvious, Moffat notes that when you¡¯re in the hospital, there may be reasons a patient doesn¡¯t always get the answers they need.
¡°Patients don¡¯t want to burden doctors and nurses with questions,¡± she adds. ¡°And when you¡¯re in the hospital, you¡¯re focused on what¡¯s happening now ¡ª not on what might happen when you get home.¡±
Tina Freeborn, a clinical nurse educator at the Red Deer Regional Hospital, has been weaving My Next Steps into her unit¡¯s discharge planning process for about a year.
¡°It¡¯s like a checklist,¡± she says. ¡°Patients can feel stressed about going home from the hospital, and this gives them good guidance. Plus, it helps us understand what our patients need.¡±
Freeborn also sees larger benefits to the healthcare system: ¡°When a patient is given My Next Steps, everything is more likely to be in place when they go home, so they¡¯re not going to come back to the hospital.¡± Moffat wishes she could be a fly on the wall as My Next Steps is handed out across Â鶹ӳ».
¡°I¡¯d love to say to an overwhelmed patient, ¡®Pick just one question on My Next Steps and make sure they get that addressed.¡¯ To me, that¡¯s a win.¡±
Read more about My Next Steps. For more information, email PHC.IntegrationNetwork@ahs.ca.
