• Home
• News
• 2018
• Cup of kindness from clinicians an elixir for better patient health

Cup of kindness from clinicians an elixir for better patient health

From the London Free Press
December 19
By Jennifer Bieman

View original article.

In a stressed health-care system with short appointments and time-crunched doctors and nurses, kindness and inclusivity by clinicians might be the best medicine, London researchers say.

The so-called equity-oriented health-care approach, which focuses on welcoming and inclusive behaviour between patients and clinic staff, is linked to better health outcomes in marginalized or impoverished patients, a new study by researchers at Western University and the University of British Columbia says.

“It’s about trying to pay attention to the way that we actually interact with people,” said Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, study co-author and professor in Western’s Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing.

“It makes health-care providers think differently when they adopt this approach . . . It sounds very simple, but in a busy health-care environment, when there’s time pressure and other things, sometimes those really fundamental things get put to the side (continue reading).”