Abstract
Over the past few decades, health professionals have developed a growing interest in seeking methods to address the social determinants of health. Health surveys have shown that quality of life (QoL) in patients with life-threatening medical conditions have identified that individual care plans can be effective, but the pressures on health services are resource intensive to offer to all, including those whose unmet needs are not always apparent to many health professionals, including general practitioners (McBride, 2022). A multidisciplinary approach is recommended for the ongoing management of patients, but studies have shown a failure to provide multidisciplinary care, resulting in between 25% to 40% of patients’ being dissatisfied with their care (McBride et al., 2021). The time allocated with their consultant is often said to be inadequate, giving little time for an explanation about their diagnostic and treatment pathways and the subsequent potential consequences of their illness. The long wait for a diagnosis, and differences in perceptions of health between patients and their physicians, have highlighted deficiencies in delivering an effective multidisciplinary approach which often results in unmet needs. Radiographers are highly skilled and have the tools and expertise to diagnose and treat patients, but these skills should not only focus on the medical condition itself, but also adopt a person-centred approach to diagnose and treat patients as an individual with unmet needs. This chapter focuses on a patient’s perspective of care and how by promoting a multidisciplinary team approach in the overall health care plan, outcomes could be improved by adopting interprofessional strategies to facilitate care coordination and improve communication. It is usually when you have an illness, particularly a life-threatening one, that you realise how your life can change often suddenly, affecting your family relationships, social life, work, and pleasure. An illness can impact on a patient’s QoL in a range of different ways which can be physical, psychological, and in some cases, patients can develop cognitive impairments and find themselves having to make life -changes and an increasing dependence on their carer.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Person-Centred Care in Radiology |
Subtitle of host publication | International Perspectives on High-Quality Care |
Editors | Shayne Chau, Emma Hyde, Karen Knapp, Christopher Hayre |
Publisher | CRC Press |
Chapter | 25 |
Pages | 411-422 |
Number of pages | 12 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781003310143 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2024 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Engineering
- General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology