| Julie: | Hi Rebecca! Tell me about your position and where you work? |
| Rebecca: | I’m the Care Manager at Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center. I am a nurse and I have been working in one of our family practice clinics and also our OBGYN clinic. |
| Julie: | Ok, so do you coach patients on a regular basis? |
| Rebecca: | Yes. |
| Julie: | How much time do you get to spend coaching your patients? |
| Rebecca: | As much as needed really. If my schedule is not too packed, they will come and find me throughout the day and I will get to spend anywhere from 5 minutes up to an hour if I need to. |
| Julie: | How often do you get to see a particular patient? |
| Rebecca: | Generally, in the OB clinic, someone who comes in for a weekly visit during their pregnancy or occasionally it’s just once a month. |
| Julie: | How has the coach training changed your approach in working with your patients? |
| Rebecca: | I changed how I listen to patients. I listen to what they have really been going through and what they want and what they CAN do. Before, I was telling them what they needed to do and we would come up with a plan. They would say, yeah yeah, I will do that. They would leave and never call me back. It has really helped me to focus on the whole person. |
| Julie: | What skills are you using to achieve this? |
| Rebecca: | Improved listening skills and I have been asking a lot more open ended questions. Using a lot of reflections and I have really been using silence. Generally, I would try and fill up the silence, but now I have learned that silence is a good time to let the patient think. So, I’ve really been trying to keep my mouth shut. |
| Julie: | Have you observed a difference in your patients as a result of that? |
| Rebecca: | I have, yes. I feel like the patients have been more relaxed and open with me. One of my patients was pretty shocked that I was taking that time and asking those deeper questions. She said no one had ever asked her those kind of things before. She said if felt good to be listened to, for once. |
| Julie: | What was one of the most exciting things you took away from your Clinical Health Coach training and are now able to utilize? |
| Rebecca: | Really getting patients engaged gets me excited. In the past, we have been creating these plans for patients, you follow up and they don’t call you back because they probably haven’t been keeping up with their plan and they don’t want to talk about it or get yelled at. But, now they are actually engaged and even if they are falling behind on their goals, I am still encouraging and finding something positive to give them a lift and keep them on the path. |
| Julie: | Do you have a particular success story that you could share. |
| Rebecca: | Sure. I had a patient who was an older gentlemen who was doing some hoarding, isolating himself, and had a problem with alcohol. It took me quite a while for him to call me back. I was able to catch him one day, and just taking that time to actually listen and be warm, show him that I really cared and tried to encourage him. He started to trust me and get engaged with the conversation. Over a few face to face meeting and phone calls, he has now made a plan. He is cleaning a room each week in his house, getting in touch with old friends and estranged family members and he has quit drinking. He made phone calls and got himself set up with AA meetings and counselling. It was a snowball. He calls me once a week, just to say “hi” and to check in. I really enjoy talking to him and he has really opened up a lot. |
| Julie: | How do you think you were able to get him to open up? |
| Rebecca: | I didn’t put any judgement on him at all. I treated him with respect. I thought of his excuses as change talk and I though, oooh we can work with this. It was exciting to find the positive things. |
| Julie: | What would you share with a colleague who is considering going through the training? |
| Rebecca: | I explained it to one of my other colleagues as a new way to approach things. I told them it’s like the patient is driving the bus and they are in charge of where they are going to go and how they are going to get there. I am here to guide them and sit a long side them. Use the tools that I was taught to help them along the path. If it gets bumpy or they hit a road block, I am there to help them reroute and get them to where they want to be. I am a partner and not an expert. |
| Julie: | That’s a great way to look at it. |
| Rebecca: | For me, it takes away some of the frustration and pressure. When you are trying to push these ideas on people, and they don’t want to do them, you feel like you’re just beating your head up against the wall. When it is their idea, the pressure is off you and you are just there to help and support. |
| Julie: | How do you use coaching with your OB patients? |
| Rebecca: | The newer or young moms may need some help focusing on where they want to go in life and how to do it with a new baby. I had a patient who felt like her life was over. I was able to show her a different path that she hadn’t considered before. |
| Julie: | What other skills have you taken away from the training? |
| Rebecca: | It was interesting to figure out my own personality traits. But now, I’m really aware of what kind of patient they are and consider which direction I need to go with them based on that. I has helped to figure out the right way to approach a patient because everyone is so different. The training has really helped me, as a nurse, to stop trying to fix things.
I even feel like I am asking my toddler more open ended questions! (Laughs) |