{"id":17762,"date":"2021-07-30T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=17762"},"modified":"2021-07-09T14:37:12","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T18:37:12","slug":"patient-centered-care-interview-with-registered-dietitian-cathy-conway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/07\/30\/patient-centered-care-interview-with-registered-dietitian-cathy-conway\/","title":{"rendered":"Patient-Centered Care: Interview with Registered Dietitian Cathy Conway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Shantika Bhat, VG Intern<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shantika Bhat is interested in neurological\ndiseases and how to care for patients. She interviewed Cathy Conway, a\nregistered dietitian who works with patients who have developmental and\nintellectual disabilities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing the role<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something\nthat always comes up in the medical field is that fear of preconceived notions\nof a doctor’s role. Some patients will be scared that the doctor will be\ntelling them what to do or that the doctor doesn\u2019t want to listen to them.\nOftentimes it\u2019s not talked about how intimating a title can be for patients and\nso Cathy wants to break down those feelings by playing her role in a manner\nthat’s focused on active listening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\nis really important to respect an individual and hear what they are saying,\u201d\nsays Conway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\na registered dietitian she gets patients all the time who will believe that she\nwill be telling them what to eat and what not to do, however, she doesn\u2019t. She\nlistens and asks them \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\ncall it peeling an onion. You want to get to the real issue by asking the\nquestions and repeating what my patients tell me.\u201d For example, Conway had a\npatient who had Type 2 Diabetes and their A1C was high. Conway asked the\npatient questions and made the patient realize what they were doing that wasn\u2019t\nhealthy without directly saying it. I learned from Conway that making your\npatients realize what they did wrong is more effective than telling them what\nthey did wrong. At the end of the day it’s the patients who make the decision\nso you have to make sure they realize what they need to fix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with Intellectual and Developmental\npatients: Patient-Centered Care<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nthought when working with patients who have intellectual disability that health\nprofessionals would need extra training. My perception has changed a little bit\nafter talking with Conway. I went into this thinking that there must be extra\ntraining for many disabilities; however, Conway says she learned the most from\nexperience over time. I knew that with a spectrum of all of these disabilities\nthat a training will not be enough for you to be able to provide the best care\nfor them. It is all case by case which is why Conway treats her patients using\nPatient Centered Care. The Institute of Medicine\u2019s\narticle Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New\nHealth System for the 21st Century<\/em> defines patient<\/strong>–centered care<\/strong> as\n\u201cProviding care<\/strong> that is respectful\nof, and responsive to, individual patient<\/strong>\npreferences, needs and values, and ensuring that patient<\/strong> values guide all clinical decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\ncan’t put everyone in a box,\u201d says Conway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Active\nlistening is so important because it helps to really connect to the patient so\nthat the dietitian or doctor can help them best. Active Listening is a\ntechnique used to connect and engage the speaker and listen in conversations.\nConway recommends that everyone going into the healthcare field learn Patient-Centered\ncare and active listening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Diets<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conway\nadvocates for diversity and trying something new. In New York they passed Bill S1471A<\/a>\/A4072<\/a>, which requires hospitals to make\nplant-based meals and snacks containing no animal products or by-products that\nare nutritionally equivalent to other menu items available to those that\nrequest them. The bill also requires hospitals to list the plant-based options\non all written materials and menus. One of Conway\u2019s patients was in the\nhospital for a week and got to try the menu with these foods he wouldn\u2019t have\ntried elsewhere. And now this patient orders plant-based foods such as quinoa on\na regular basis on his outings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\nshould try different foods so that new foods can be added to your regular diet.\nThe more exposure the better,\u201d said Conway<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\ninformation that may be helpful to food services, see: https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/fsupdate\/index.htm<\/a>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shantika Bhat, VG Intern Shantika Bhat is interested in neurological diseases and how to care for patients. She interviewed Cathy Conway, a registered dietitian who works with patients who have developmental and intellectual disabilities.  Playing the role Something that always comes up in the medical field is that fear of preconceived notions of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17764,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17762\/revisions\/17764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}