PILOT Your Health Care Journey
A 'Good' Patient Could Be A Dead Patient
by
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Something is not quite right. You don’t consciously want to think about it. It could be as vague as fatigue, as obvious as a lump, an unexplained pain or pins and needles in your toes. You ignore it, pretending it’s not there. But, your body will not let you forget that, yes indeed, something is different and you are not your normal healthy self.
You know that you should make an appointment to visit your doctor. But you don’t want to waste the doctor’s time. You know she’s a busy woman and maybe you aren’t really ill at all. Isn’t this just an excuse? Why do you have this knot of impending dread in your stomach? Perhaps it is a feeling that once you make a doctor’s appointment, you will be starting down an unknown path. Fear of the unknown; that is it! Or is it loss of control?? Or perhaps the idea of becoming a patient is not very appealing to you.
Patient. Now that’s a new title for you. Are you ready to be known as ‘the patient’? The dictionary reports that it comes from a fourteenth century French word from the Latin ‘to suffer’. Used as an adjective, patient means capable of waiting, able to endure waiting or delay without becoming annoyed or upset. Or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties. The dictionary continues ‘able to tolerate difficult circumstances; able to tolerate being hurt, provoked or annoyed without complaint or loss of temper’. None of those definitions need apply to you.
Even the health care industry realizes that the word patient inadequately describes a person in need of care in the 21st century. My book will, I hope, give you the information and assistance to become a knowledgeable health care consumer. Or, ‘health care client’. You should not be one who is patient when faced with today’s health care system. You need to know how to obtain timely, appropriate care. While you may still be called ‘the patient’ most of the time, you must not stay ‘capable of waiting, able to endure waiting or delay without becoming annoyed or upset’. Instead, you will need to be, metaphorically, the pilot of your ship. With the competent assistance of health care providers, this book can help you go from being a patient to being a PILOT. The name Pilot represents:
P: Persistent
I: Inquisitive
L: Learning
O: Organized
T: Tenacious
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About the Book
You just aren't feeling well...something is not quite right. You are more tired than usual. Occasionally, you feel twinges that are unfamiliar. A visit to the doctor is in order. After all, the doctor will have all the answers, and will be able to come up with the right diagnosis of your problem. If it is somethng serious, you trust that the doctor will arrange the right treatment. After all, he is the expert. Why question his educated opinions?
You WILL question your dcotor, as you rightly should, after you read Jean Duffy's second book. PILOT Your Healhcare Journey: a good patient could be a dead patient. With Jean's assistance, this book can help you go from being a patient to being a PILOT. PILOTs are Persistent, Inquisitive, always Learning, Organized and Tenacious. PILOTs participate in decisions that can mean life or death. Jean's years as a nurse educator, a nurse lobbyist and her experience as a reformer in the California legislature, come to bear in this book that will convince you to stop being submissive in today's healthcare system, and start advocating for yourself.
Don't be silent in your healthcare decision-making process. Don't miss this book....it coud help you to, literally, save your own life.
About the Author
Jean Macpherson Duffy is no stranger to controversy. As a registered nurse, university professor, and member of the California state Legislature, Duffy has preached the message of personal advocacy when it come to one's health care.
In her first book, Duffy wrote of her own experiences with best cancer, Breast Cancer Treatment....the decisions are yours. Motivated by the number of women who responded to her step by step approach, Duffy has broadened her scope. Her newest book stimulates us to take charge of all our health care decisions.
PILOT Your Healthcare Journey: a good patient could be a dead patient is written in Duffy's conversational sytle and contains many stories of friends who have faced a difficult diagnosis.
Duffy uses her experience as a nurse, her ability to teach and her knowledge of how systems work to take the reader step by step from the initial doctor's vist through diagnosis and treatment. Jean Duffy is a powerful author who motivates the reader.
Jean lives half time in Scotland and half time in northern California.She is married to Gordon Duffy, mother of five grown children and has twelve grandchildren. She is co-librarian for the First Presbyterian Church, Santa Rosa and also librarian for the Clan Macpherson Museum in Newtonmore, Scotland.