ST PAUL, Minn. — COVID-19 has changed the way patients and care givers interact. Often there is little personal interaction at all. But a program at Regions hospital is breaking down those barriers and making true connections.
“I had COVID pneumonia. I was really sick," says Bob Boyd.
On September 5th, Bob Boyd found himself a temporary resident of Regions Hospital. With family and friends, not allowed in, it made for a lonely time, but that too was just temporary.
“We always start by saying, “tell me your life story”, and we typically take about an hour,” says Dr. Lauren Shaw.
Dr. Shaw brought My life, My story to the COVID unit at Regions. An opportunity for patients to interact with caregivers and caregivers to get a deeper understanding of the people they treat.
“The provider who is collecting their story is outside of their room, but speaking with them through an iPad, and it's helpful to see a full face, and full facial expressions, and help them connect a little bit better with us,” says Dr. Shaw.
So, Bob told his life story. From growing up in a small town, to flying planes in the Navy, to traveling with his beautiful wife of 53 years.
“Right away it was like the small stuff disappeared, the really important stuff came to the surface, I was a little doubtful,” he says.
“It ended up being my life story in 662 words. How do you do that?” he laughs.
“A nurse came in and said, “I read your story,” and I'm like, you're kidding me? You read that thing? And she said, “yeah” and she said, “I'm from a small town in Wisconsin too,” and we talked about Lorna Doone cookies. We instantly had a relationship that I didn't have before that. We made a connection,” says Boyd.
And for six days, the connections kept coming, when family could not.
A doctor whose father also flew planes in Navy.
“It brought me right out of that room. I was back in airplanes in again, I can't tell you how significant those points of contact, if you want to call them, are for the patient,” says Boyd.
And those connections? They go both ways. None of this has been easy on our frontline health care workers either.
“People have reached out to me, occupational therapists, clinical documentation nurse, cardiac nurse manager, just saying how well it helps them understand what the patient is going through and connect with the patient,” says Dr. Shaw.
The program is paid for through donations to the Regions Hospital Foundation COVID-19 Response and Relief Fund. Dr. Shaw hopes to expand it someday so that every Health Partners patient gets to include their life story in their medical file.