At this time of year, everyone’s social media feeds fill up with messages about Valentine’s Day and ways of celebrating the wonder of love. While the day has traditionally been all about romantic love, there is plenty of room to celebrate the many different kinds of love that exist between people. From the tribute to female friendship that is ‘Galentine’ to the bond between devoted family members, love can take many forms.
In the health and medical sector, love is an essential ingredient in the provision of compassionate, comprehensive care. Without it, residents and patients cannot be seen and treated as human beings in need to respect, dignity and compassion. Love is a big part of what makes us human; however we can also use technology to support how we care for vulnerable patients and residents. Care Vision could well prove the perfect partner for your care setting this Valentine’s season. Here are some reasons to feel the love…
Person-led care
At the heart of informed, customised care is the person being cared for. Or at least they should be. After all, who is better placed to understand how someone wants to be treated and looked after than the person receiving the care? This ranges from how they prefer to be addressed to religious or cultural considerations, medical wishes and communication methods. All of this can be recorded in their personal record within Care Vision for easy retrieval whenever their care plan is under discussion. It also helps inform the whole team about what the person wants to happen, where and when. This ensures dignified, competent care that enhances the resident’s quality of life and supports their independence.
The human side
Many care staff find themselves caught up in a great deal of paperwork, admin and reports. This means that they often cannot spend as much time as they would like actually interacting with the residents and getting to know them. Switching to a digital admin system lie Care Vision frees up a lot of that time. It does away with the need for carers to produce multiple reports or chase up hard copies of paperwork or residents’ files to update. They simply input the data that need to share and it is saved and shared as required automatically. This frees up time and headspace for more loving, less rushed care. Just one example of how technology can help busy staff focus more on the human side of things.
Everyone included
We all crave love, acceptance and to feel part of the team. When we are worried about being rejected or left out, this can make us feel very unloved indeed. Making sure, therefore, that all residents – and staff – in your care home are consulted, respected and valued is highly important. Your digital care management system can help with this in a number of ways. Event planning modules mean that staff can plan entertainments and outings that everyone can join in, if they wish. Staff training tools allow managers to ensure that everyone has been trained appropriately around diversity, inclusion, cultural differences and other key areas. This is key for staff too, who will feel far more motivated and inclined to stay in their roles if they are actively included and respected, no matter what their background.
Safe and sound
Care Vision also has a series of valuable monitoring tools available to watch the health and wellbeing of your residents. From fluid intake to weight loss; behaviour to changes in emotions, you can keep track of how people are feeling and responding to your care and make changes and offer more help and support as required. It is human nature to want to protect and provide for our loved ones. This approach means that care managers can now do so with even more data at their fingertips to inform the best way to proceed. Other features, such as the electronic visitors book and staff rota tool are also great ways to help managers show their love. These help to ensure people’s physical safety when receiving guests and provide enough staff to support them on site and when they are away from the home on outings or appointments.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
