XVII Fero Scholarship in Translational Oncology Research
12 July 2019
The University of Zaragoza stands as an international reference for rare mitochondrial diseases with 3.500 cases analyzed
22 July 2019
In this highly specialized unit, 75 patients are admitted a year with very long stays.
HUMANIZE HIM. This is the name of the first comprehensive and national project for the humanization of health care in spinal cord injury promoted by the Miguel Servet University Hospital (HUMS) and in which 13 other Spanish centers participate.
This initiative has several lines of action that involve changes in the way of working (there is a commitment to multidisciplinary integration); structural modifications (adaptation of rooms, changes in lighting); variations in work routines (management of night care without keeping the patient awake, silence in floor control); and new approaches (cooperation between family members and/or patients, communication between those involved, training of professionals in new strategies...).
The ULME del Servet is a highly specialized Unit that comprehensively cares for patients with spinal cord injury, with the aim of achieving their rehabilitation. Each year, approximately 75 acute patients with spinal cord injury are admitted to this Unit and 1.150 patients are followed up, performing 450 scheduled check-ups and 270 on-demand check-ups per year. These people are cared for by a multidisciplinary health team of 44 professionals including rehabilitation doctors, nursing, auxiliary nursing technicians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychology, and full or part-time social work.
A global concept
“We want to take into account the global concept of the person, with their beliefs, their way of being, their priorities in life. Humanization projects try, within healthcare, to take these things into account and make room for all this plurality,” highlights Dr. Ricardo Jariod Gaudes, head of Section of the Spinal Cord Injury Unit (ULME) of the Miguel Servet University Hospital. .
Jariod and the supervisor of the ULME, nurse Isabel María Terrer Pérez, are the promoters of HUMANÍZALE in Servet, a health initiative in which all the relevant specialties of the Spinal Injury Units of Spain participate.
For Terrer, “humanization is a philosophy that puts the patient at the center of care and takes into account their emotional needs, in addition to their physical healing needs.” “This is – he adds – a change of model in health care that goes from a paternalistic vision to participatory and integrative care.”
“There is a great lack of knowledge about the value that Spinal Injury Units provide,” says Ricardo Jariod. “Our level of specialization is essential,” he adds, “to guarantee comprehensive care for spinal cord injuries and promote the recovery of these patients. HUMANÍZALE will focus on the need to take into account the dignity of patients, caregivers and professionals. At the same time, it will enhance communication to publicize the areas of improvement that are essential, on the one hand, and to disseminate the quality of care and work carried out in each ULME, on the other."
At the moment, the project has just taken its first steps. The experts have provided suggestions that are being pooled to develop a consensual Guide to Humanizing Care in Spinal Cord Injury for next fall.
