Friday update
On Fridays I write my German newsletter, this is usually bits from there plus (usually frustrated) comments
Management AND Service Design (From the German newsletter, with added frustration in the end, sorry)
Sitting down to a new edition of the newsletter, I am surprised how different it feels after a break of a few weeks. On the one hand, after a few conversations I am much closer to an actual proposal to our clinic. On the other hand, I have worked a lot on myself and so I have been able to see my emotional reactions to clinic life in the context of the big questions of values and hierarchy. I then wrote a post about this.
Since my proposal to the clinic management will have a lot to do with my own experience with this culture, I need to be able to talk about it confidently. I can do that better now. I had stress with the people there that I would not have had if the organisation had created structures that would have supported me and my child.
But because there were no such structures, I had to act on my own initiative. And I reaped stress.
In the meantime, this has also become clear in a conversation - there is a project in the clinic for young adults with cancer and their psycho-social needs, which are different from those of older "standard patients". We never heard of it until a few weeks ago. There is simply no time for it. And so I was - and am - left alone with all the needs of my child that are mentioned there. There is an ACADEMIC awareness of them, but this has no use at all in reality. It goes without saying that I do not blame individual doctors for this - I have seen how they wear themselves down in the daily race against time.
The fact that the organisation has to change in order to better design their services is what this project is about. Yes, "digitisation" offers approaches that you can buy in and that can also work in healthcare - but they are not presented to us on a silver platter. Nobody will come and force you to make good choices. Providers want to profit from you, not do the hard work to change you.
Nobody will suck up to you and tell you you are great and wonderful and you’ll be even greater if you buy our product. This doesn’t work that way.
Events coming up
Next month there is another event from this Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer project. I already pushed for hashtags at this event year. It worked a little bit. But: There’s nothing on the poster this year, no hashtag, not even a link other than the central clinic website. While the big theme is communication and I know that there are sensible people involved.
Well… I guess I shall print out the flyer and send a fax to register.