By James McGuinness, M.D. Parker Family Health Medical Director
Those April showers truly do bring May flowers. The weather is slowly getting warmer, the rain is getting more frequent and flowers are blooming. We start to think about Mother’s Day, grilling outside, planting flowers and Memorial Day.
As information on the COVID-19 pandemic is being renewed daily, the Parker Family Health Center continues to keep updated while serving our patients via telephone and/or telemedicine. We continue to work with our patients and try to keep them healthy. In this way we can prevent unnecessary trips to the local emergency rooms, which are already overwhelmed with the pandemic. We monitor recommendations from the federal and state government health authorities daily and we adapt accordingly to these swiftly changing events.
Our patients struggle to make ends meet while caring for their families. These situations continue to worsen during the COVID-19 pandemic. We appreciate the community’s ongoing support as we continue to fulfill our mission to provide free health care for those in our community who are uninsured or cannot afford to pay for their medical care.
National Nurses Day was celebrated May 6 and marked the beginning of Nurse Appreciation Week which ends May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. The Parker Family Health Center staff work as a team, and our nurses and nurse practitioners are essential in making things progress smoothly. Nurses have greater responsibilities and autonomy than in previous times, and they enjoy an increasingly collaborative relationship with physicians and other members of our health care team.
Many people consider the nurse-patient relationship to be therapeutic. This connection is built on a mutual respect between a nurse and the patient. It is a rapport which is normally developed over time and requires several important elements such as trust, which is probably the most important and influential factor. The relationship between a nurse and patient requires that the nurse possess excellent interpersonal communication skills which are designed to focus on the health and well-being of the patient. The nurse-patient relationship depends on the length of patient contact with the nurse, the patient’s medical condition requirements and trust. The patient should always feel respected, important and secure enough to communicate any concerns to the nurse.
Let us acknowledge all the nurses and nurse practitioners who deserve a huge round of applause! We thank them and all the health care and EMS providers who are working endlessly to help us get through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enjoy the warm weather in May, be careful and diligent, observe social distancing, wear masks and/or gloves appropriately, use hand sanitizer often, eat properly and exercise. We will all get through this together.
The natural healing force in each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.
– Hippocrates
James McGuinness, M.D., is a family physician in Middletown and is the medical director of the Parker Family Health Center in Red Bank.
The article originally appeared in the May 7th – May 13th, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
