Don’t let the lab coats and scrubs fool you. Those trappings might be functional, but they camouflage one of the greatest secret weapons a medical professional can possess — the heart of a warrior.
Health Care Quarterly asked the folks on the frontlines of health care to think about their work like its a battle — because it often is. What is their biggest foe, and — most important — what are the tools in their arsenal to help stay ahead?
Shaina Meyer
The biggest challenge we face in working with patients with progressive neurological diseases that have no cure (such as Parkinson’s disease) is keeping the person who is battling the disease motivated to fight. For any human, it is not a simple feat to continue to battle something that feels like it is always winning the war. One unwritten, but paramount task that’s not in the clinical rehab manager job description is to help keep people motivated and pushing them to be the best they can be, no matter what.
I am proud to be a part of a team at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health that achieves this by educating people and empowering them to become more educated themselves.
Additionally, it is just as crucial that their caregivers are informed, educated and trained in communication as it can be one of the most important tools in the fight against neurological conditions. People who do not have a good support system are the ones that I see suffer the most.