Hey all!
Just wanted to pass along some incredible moments over this past week... My mind is just constantly amazed of how much we habituate to everything and things just become so normal, no big deals, etc... thankfully, something prompted perspective and more awareness of some of the incredible "normal" moments that reflect what we are trying to do with PCBH and integrated care... Grateful for the reminder to slow down and acknowledge what we get to do every day...
- On Monday, I was shadowing one of our third-year residents and completely blown away by her ability to connect to patients and incorporate all facets of patient-centered communication, something she has been intentionally working on. There was a moment sitting in the exam room observing where my mind said, "seriously, could you be any prouder of her... and, can you believe this is your job???"
- The next morning, I walked into one of our meeting rooms and saw on the white board left over education from one of our BHCs One on One coaching with another resident. Sarah Ortner (the BHC completing the coaching) had clearly been talking with the resident about chronic pain and how to intervene behaviorally and, most importantly, compassionately. The moment realizing the education that was happening with our residents and how they are feeling more confident, competent, and comfortable dealing with behavioral concerns in their clinics was overwhelming.
- This afternoon, Bridget was able to give out the coveted Warm-Handoff of the Month trophy to a new medical provider who has completely embraced integrated care to the fullest degree possible. We give this award out every month, which makes it normal/just what we do, but the response from the medical provider, which prompted reflection of past recipients, brought a present moment awareness of how amazing and incredible each individual handoff we do is. As our clinic manager said during the all-staff meeting, almost 300 handoffs were completed this past month (most since COVID began) and each one is accompanied with a medical provider or staff member acknowledging what we are striving to promote, that health is a contextual biopsychosocial reality, compassionately introducing the idea of a BHC to the patient, the patient with a great deal of bravery accepting this invitation, and a BHC engaging the patient with intentional contextual and compassion care... so much room for error, so much room for barriers to prevent the completion from happening... while normal and just "what we do..." when actually thought about, each handoff is improbable and truly incredible...
As always, grateful for these moments, being able to share them with the PCBH community, and hope they prompt moments of pausing throughout the day... the work everyone is doing is so vital, so important, so needed, and still so much more to do... we, at least I do, forget often to acknowledge the life changing moments that occur daily... my gratitude for you all and your work!!!