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The francis report – the importance of person-centred health and care Shaun Maher Dental Update 2024 42:3, 707-709.
Authors
ShaunMaher
Strategic Advisor for Person-Centred Care and Improvement, Healthcare Quality and Strategy Directorate, The Scottish Government, St Andrews House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG, UK
The relational elements of care are often described as ‘soft skills’ or ‘nice to have’ but not essential in the modern world of evidence-based healthcare. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, this type of language relegates person-centred approaches to a lower status compared to other key aspects of quality, such as safety or financial performance.
Person-centredness is a powerful underpinning philosophy that has the potential to transform the way we deliver care and support as well as enhancing the quality of services. However, our healthcare system will not become more person-centred of its own accord. Thoughtful, deliberate action is required to support this change.
Clinical Relevance: The person-centred approach is vital in achieving safe, effective, efficient care.
Article
When people think about person-centred care they often equate it with the principles of good customer service and, whilst there is some truth in this, when it comes to the world of healthcare there is much more to being person-centred than smiling and saying ‘have a nice day!’. Really good customer service comes about when the provider of the service or product has a good understanding of what provides value to their customers. If they fail to understand what provides value, then experiences and quality will be variable. These same principles apply to healthcare. Coupled with this, the common description of relational elements of care as ‘soft skills’ can demean their importance and reinforces the view of some that these skills are nice to have, but not essential. The pressure and pace of work can often cause us to lose sight of the important fact that our work is all about people, our fellow human beings. How we, and the systems we operate in, relate to the people we come into contact with is at the heart of our work and critical to its quality.
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