Tupeak Hope

To those who stuck with me as this project grew from a simple discussion during a brief break in a medical conference in a couple of very short years ago into a book in process, a handful of articles, and into the site and blog that you see now, I sincerely thank you! For without all of you, I highly doubt I’d have been able to make any of this happen.

Most often when we think of someone being in the hospital, we think instantly of their physical health. However, mental health can play an important role in healing physical issues as well. The mental health aspect of healthcare, when it comes to physical maladies is often overlooked, or simply not thought of as often as it should be. I am a firm believer that every patient who has been admitted to the hospital should receive, at the very least, a cursory mental health examination. By doing so, properly trained staff may well be able to predict the need for further psychological or even psychiatric interventions.

Most of us go about our daily lives oblivious to the dangers lurking all around us during nearly every second of our seemingly routine and maybe even mundane existence. While some of you may well find this post to be morbid and unnecessary. I assure you from personal experience on multiple levels, many of them personal and very close to home, this is a topic that must be addressed.

This is a very difficult, yet sobering and absolutely necessary topic. The hard truth of life, is that we are all dying a little bit every day. From the time we are born, we are in effect, also on the path to our inevitable death. Sure, we don’t have an expiration date stamped on the bottom of our feet, nor should we live life in fear of what could happen to us, or how and when we will die. However, we certainly must be aware that horrible things happen to good people each and every day. While we must not allow ourselves to live in fear of these life changing events, we also cannot afford to bury our head in the sand and pretend that they simply do not exist, or that they only happen to other people, not to us.

Despite having worked in EMS, as well as in hospitals on medical/surgical floors; Skilled Nursing Facilities, Emergency Departments, Operating Rooms and many roles over my years before becoming ill, and the fact that I now have extensive knowledge and experience being a patient, I have once again learned what I think is a valuable lesson that some of us forget over our time in service to others in healthcare. And the fact of the matter is that all patients are NOT created equal!

The following is a re-post to a friends’ blog, where she addresses a very real issue for ICU patients, that has been overlooked for way too long. This is a must-read article for anyone who ever has or knows someone who has had to spend time in an ICU regardless of whether the cause was medical or surgical.

The fact is, like many things in medicine, it is time to re-evaluate and update how the sickest patients are cared for to prevent long-term ramifications of that care. While most patients are simply happy to get out of the ICU, it is imperative to recognize that the ICU itself can cause trauma which must be addressed!