Healthcare is built on trust. Patients seeking care are often in a vulnerable position: you need help with something, and you’re putting yourself in the hands of a stranger hoping that they have the knowledge and the ability to help you. That’s why it’s not enough for medical professionals to simply have an advanced knowledge of the latest medical techniques and treatments. We’ve also got to have empathy, understanding, and the ability to connect with others if we’re going to give you the care you need.
It’s important to us to build a trusting relationship between provider and patient because the ease you feel when you know you can trust a professional leads to open, productive dialogue about your health, which leads to finding the best course of treatment, which leads to the best patient outcomes.
Seeing the Person Behind the Patient
One of our fundamental beliefs is seeing the person behind the patient. What does that mean? Whatever your job is, it’s easy to lose sight that you’re doing it with others and for others. If you work at a store, for instance, you might see hundreds of customers a day. They come in, they make a purchase, and they go out, and your interactions with them tend to be limited. It’s easy to forget that there is a human being there, someone who might be shopping to forget the bad day they just had, or dreading where they are going after they leave the store. It’s easy to see a “customer” rather than a “person,” a thing you have to do rather than a person who needs human connection as much as they need to buy something. We see this happen all the time when customers are rude to employees and employees fail to treat customers with the warmth and kindness a guest deserves.
The same is often true in healthcare. As much study and hard work it takes to become a doctor or nurse, it takes a kind heart in addition to intelligence and dedication to succeed. No one gets into healthcare to get rich. Ask any nurse or doctor why they got into the medical field, and you’ll probably hear some version of “I wanted to do something meaningful with my life” or “I wanted to make the world a better place.” If that’s your goal, you’ll never lose sight of the person behind the patient. You’ll always be aware that a patient isn’t a customer but a person, just like you.
If you’re not in it for the right reasons, you’ll quickly burn out, and patient care will suffer. You’ll stop seeing the human being and you’ll just see another appointment to check off your list. You’ll end up inserting an IV or taking blood pressure like you’re putting gas in your car, like there’s not a human being in pain, in need of help, putting their health in your hands. That’s a massive responsibility that we take seriously.
We’ve been there as patients, asking, “Does this person really care that I’m in pain? Are they really listening to my concerns?” Making sure that our patients never have to ask themselves these questions is one of the reasons we founded Alertive. We never forget that healthcare is not just about treating or managing symptoms. The fact is, your emotional wellbeing and your physical wellbeing go hand-in-hand. If your provider is knowledgeable but only cares for the symptoms and not the person experiencing them, you’re not getting the complete, restorative care you need to heal and enjoy a better quality of life.
Serving a Diverse Community
To connect with patients and build trust, we know we have to understand where our patients come from and the challenges they face on a daily basis. Riverside, and the Greater Los Angeles Area, is a diverse community, and that diversity is reflected in our staff. We are members of this community, and we share many of the same day-to-day experiences as our patients do.
But trust isn’t only built on similarity. It’s also built on empathy. You don’t have to be exactly like someone to understand their needs; you simply have to be empathetic. Empathy is about meeting someone as an equal, listening to what they are telling you, and understanding how they feel.
Many patients find empathy lacking in healthcare, but it’s something we pride ourselves on. Take a look around our website and you’ll find a staff with impressive credentials and experience, some from right here in Riverside, some from other parts of the world, but there’s something else that brings us together, lets us work as a team, and provide the best possible care to every patient. We all share the same curiosity and compassion for every person we come in contact with, the same desire to understand everyone’s concerns and see life from different points of view. That’s what it means to see the person behind the patient. When you combine expertise with empathy, you get a healthcare provider you can trust.
