Transforming Your Waiting Area
Does your waiting area communicate your healing perspective? Step into your office and look at it through your patients’ eyes. What are they likely to see, hear, and feel as they enter? Does the environment reduce stress or heighten it?
Dr. Francesca Gallarello, a Miami Beach cardiologist, transformed the small, dingy waiting area of her new office into a serene outdoor setting. She brought in sleek, white couches, a live plant arrangement, and papered the largest wall with a life-size photo of a European street scene. As patients wait, they are calmed by this soothing environment. Your office space should be clean, attractive, engaging, and relaxing. The furniture should not be worn or broken and, yes, your magazines should be current. If possible, display some form of nature, be it natural or artificial. A group of Dutch researchers examined the stress-lowering effects of real and artificial plants in a hospital waiting room. They found that “adding real or artificial natural elements to health care environments provides an unobtrusive and inexpensive stress and anxiety management method” (Beukeboom, 2012).
Take the “Wait” Out of the Waiting Area
With today’s time constraints, most patients are likely to spend a significant amount of time in waiting rooms. Unfortunately, longer wait times are associated with reduced patient satisfaction (Anderson, 2007). Those who must wait a long time to see you are more likely to be upset, impatient, and angry by the time you finally do meet. It is certainly appropriate to thank them for their patience, but because lengthy waits are often unavoidable, try to use the time to educate your patients and help them prepare to meet with you.
One way to utilize the wait time is to physically prepare your patients to be as alert as possible when they interact with you. If you work with individuals who have diabetes, check their blood glucose level as soon as they arrive. Most offices check glucose levels after patients get assigned to an exam room. Shortly after that, you, their health care provider, usually will enter the room. If a patient has a low glucose level, he or she won’t have adequate time to improve it before seeing you, so you may end up interacting with someone who can’t give you undivided attention. Some of your messages will reach their intended target, whereas others may be missed entirely. If your patients get their blood checked when they sign in, they should have adequate time to respond to a snack or take a corrective dose of insulin, if needed. If they don’t have a snack handy, provide one along with a handout on how to treat hypoglycemia. By the time the two of you meet, your patient’s glucose level should be within, or at least closer to a desired target range, which should help you both communicate more effectively.
Educate
Transform your waiting room into an extension of your treatment. Many health care providers do this. They display informative brochures, hang posters, and even mount televisions that run educational programming (Gignon, 2012). These are helpful tools that add value to the waiting room experience. But, they are passive activities. For more active learning, invite your patients to complete worksheets that heighten their self-awareness, challenge negative beliefs, help them identify strengths, and utilize their problem-solving skills. Near the worksheets, post the following: “Your appointment starts now. Please fill out these forms.”
Setting the Agenda
We designed the following worksheets for you to use in your waiting area. They contain thought-provoking questions that can help your patients consider their medically related psychological, social, and behavioral issues in a more positive and proactive way. These sheets aren’t just busy work. Writing about stressful experiences and health-related issues can speed up healing (Smyth, 1999). Expressive writing also helps many individuals enjoy improvements in their mood, emotional and physical symptoms, and immune system functioning (Baikie, 2005). If desired, use these worksheets to set the agenda for the appointment. If you don’t want to use them in that way, try to acknowledge your patients’ effort. Patients want you to take an interest in what they’ve accomplished or learned. Your inquiry doesn’t have to take up a lot of time. Simply ask your patients to name one or two things they gained from doing this activity.
Some of these worksheets are diabetes focused and are based on the American Association of Diabetes Educators’ list (the AADE7™) of seven self-care behaviors: healthy eating, being active, monitoring, taking medications, problem solving, healthy coping, and reducing risks. Several worksheets cover generic health-related issues. If you deal with a different area of medicine or have other topics you would like to address, create worksheets of your own. For example, you can develop worksheets on intimacy, humor, body image, relapse challenges, and motivation. Use simple, clear language to accommodate patients with reading difficulties and be sure to include questions that help your patients access their problem-solving strengths.
Worksheet Theme Guide
Worksheet 3. Power of Positive Thinking
Worksheet 4. Setting Personal Goals
Worksheet 6. Dealing With Stress
Worksheet 9. Monitoring Blood Glucose
Worksheet 10. Feeling Overwhelmed or Frustrated
Worksheet 11. Learning New Skills
Worksheet 12. Understanding the Positive Power of the Diabetes Police
Did you know that … when friends, family, and others support you and your medical issues, they become healthier too?
Please respond to the questions below. Write on the back, if you need more space.
● In the past, what type of support did you get from friends and loved ones for your medical issues? How did this support make you feel?
● Would you like to have more support now? If so, what type of support do you need?
● How can you ask others to give it to you?
What is one thing you learned from this worksheet that you can share with your health care provider?
Source: Schwartz C, Meisenhelder JB, Ma Y, Reed G: