What is Realistic Medicine?

Realistic Medicine; What?Why?How?

Welcome to the Realistic Medicine podcast. See the transcript below;
Kate: Hi, I'm Kate Arrow and I'm the clinical lead for realistic medicine in NHS Highland. In this podcast we'll introduce our team both locally and nationally and share our work with you. There will be something for everyone from sharing learning, to hearing about our community, our colleagues and the third sector. So what is realistic medicine? I went to speak to the Highland Senior Citizens Network last week and when I asked this question, very few people knew. So we've got a lot of work to do. But in essence it's a set of principles which aim to put the patient at the heart of their care. International evidence confirms that shared decision making and personcentered care improve experience, reduce harm, reduce waste and reduce risk. We know that patients often do not have time or do not feel supported to ask questions about their care. This means it can be difficult to empower them with the correct information for them to be able to digest and make the right choice for them as an individual. Our aim in Scotland is to support people to live the best quality life for as long as possible. This means we have to understand not only what help they seek for their health condition, but also what matters to them and their expectations and goals of treatment. When I spoke to the Highland Senior Citizens Network last week, I heard that their community often feel like a burden. They find it difficult to access services and their experiences vary depending on where they live. I'm going to share some quotes from them. Doctors see me as illness minus my life and wishes. It's difficult to have a conversation and you feel like you're passed around the houses. I don't feel confident to ask questions. Carers aren't valued as advocates, but they are closest to me and should be listened to. I don't feel seen or heard. There's an imbalance of health and social care that doesn't allow them to talk the same language. I feel that I'm not listen to or believed and I don't know how to get access. Now these are just some of the comments and there was a lot of great positive ideas for change and really great conversations. But these quotes all relate back to Realistic Medicine. If we can all practice Realistic Medicine, we can see that we can improve the experience of many of these individuals. And over the series of this podcast, we will go deeper into the evidence behind Realistic Medicine. We'll look at initiatives and innovations which are supporting its practice across Scotland and Highland, and also meet our colleagues and patients to hear their stories and to hear from people who are really embedded in Realistic Medicine in their practice. In our next episode, we will hear from a few of our Realistic Medicine program managers to hear about some of the fantastic work they're progressing, what their roles involve and what they are learning as they go. Please listen to this episode and to our show as we move forward on this journey with our podcast. And if you would like to be involved or share your experience, please email myself or the generic realistic medicine Highland email address, which is in the show notes [e-mail] . Bye for now.