Training helps St. Luke’s employees see through patients’ eyes

Thirteen UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's patient care technicians sat around a table Wednesday morning, each looking at a discharge form.

While the hospital employees are familiar with the form, they were looking at it from a new perspective - through a pair of goggles altered to simulate what it's like to have vision loss.

'Can you read it?” asked Barb Haeder, an advance practice nurse. 'Can you understand it?”

The techs also wore earplugs - to mimic hearing loss - and two sets of gloves weighted with rice - to illustrate loss of touch. They were given simple tasks such as buttoning a shirt, pulling on a pair of shoes and opening and eating a jar of applesauce.

The purpose: to show the employees - all of whom work with many elderly patients - what it's like to be in their patients' shoes.

'When you're experiencing sensory loss or challenges, would you want to get dressed every morning?” Haeder asked. 'It is truly a challenge and effort,” she said to the class, most of whom struggled to button their shirts, and murmured in agreement.

The training comes after St. Luke's received a NICHE designation - Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders, an New York University College of Nursing program - in March. The nurse-driven program is designed to help hospitals and health systems provide better care for seniors.

A team of nurses, social workers and care coordinators underwent similar trainings.

The hospital is actively looking for ways to better care for the aging population in Iowa. Almost 16 percent of Iowa's population is over the age of 65, according to 2013 Census Bureau data. That number only will rise as the nation's 79 million baby boomers age, with figures projecting Iowans 65 and older will make up 20 percent of the population by 2030.

In addition to the sensory-loss training, the hospital will undergo other initiatives to help St. Luke's employees better interact and care for older adults, including the addition of Geriatric Resource Nurses, who will participate in online and classroom education sessions and help assess and address common geriatric syndromes.

Patient care techs often are on the front lines of care at the hospital, helping patients bathe, get dressed, eat and walk, Haeder said.

'Staff can understand what they might be experiencing and be more mindful,” she added.

Older adults makes up about 42 percent of St. Luke's adult hospital discharges, according to hospital data, which is five percentage points higher than the national average.

The training reminded Tracy Perkins, a patient care tech who works in the hospital's rehabilitation department, that she needs to be more patient and communicate clearly.

'The worst part was not being able to hear,” she said. 'It was such a relief to take and pull those things off.”

But Perkins knows her patients don't have that luxury.

'We put ourselves in their shoes,” she said. 'We got to see what they see, hear what they hear.”