Introduction:
In an era of increasing complexity and fragmentation within the healthcare system, the concept of person-centred care (PCC) has emerged as a transformative approach to delivering high-quality, patient-focused services.
We patients certainly applaud PCC’s emphasis on treating us as whole persons, rather than just our illnesses or conditions, and most of us are intuitively excited about having our voices heard and being empowered as active partners in our own care.
The concept “Person Centred Care” may sound straightforward and even little beyond “stating the obvious”. In reality, many barriers frustrate its daily practice adoption, and there is a real danger of PCC remaining merelya politically correct tagline. Misconceptions and misunderstandings about PCC may be at forefront of hinderance.
We patients, as key stakeholders, are uniquely positioned to dispel the myths, highlight its true value and preventing it from demising as “healthcare cliché” as a result of “slogan fatigue”.
Methods:
Results:
Conclusions:
Under the PCC model of both holism and individualisation, we patients expect our providers to be our effective “polypill”. In the context of nephrology, a good multidisciplinary kidney care team should really be the renal version of competent primary care professionals – having a basic understanding of us as persons who happen to have kidney conditions, you may well conclude that we need not only renal treatment, but monitoring of other conditions or risk factors, or lifestyle changes or social or emotional support, or even, say, marriage counselling - referring to other specialties as appropriate, but never losing sight of the big picture of patients being treated as whole persons, not just a set of medical conditions.
PCC is never a one way street. No providers or healthcare systems can afford to underestimate the resourcefulness of patients under the PCC model: we can be effective eyes and ears sensing clinical signals for our providers; our lived experiences are valuable contextual factors of care plans for both symptoms and root causes; our active participation in studies can inform data points relevant to providers’ clinical and research efforts to benefit a wider population; our trust and empathy towards our providers can create a powerful advocacy alliance for necessary systemic reform and better resource allocation.
PCC is not just a lofty ideal or tagline – it is a pragmatic approach that can improve patient outcomes, increase provider professional satisfaction, and ultimately, create a more sustainable, equitable, responsive and compassionate healthcare landscape - for all.
I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.
I did not use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.