Diseases are one of the most significant contributors to human suffering and poor quality of life. The non-fiction novel Bed Number Ten, co-authored by Sue Baier and Mary Zimmeth Schomaker, is an emotive write-up that provides a first-person narrative of a patient with Guillain-Barr syndrome, which causes paralysis of the whole body. The book integrates the roles that family members, nurses, patients, and others took in the long journey to recovery. A patient-centered approach to care is one that places the interest of the patient first. It is based on foundational principles, including ongoing healing relationships, customization of treatment to suit the patient’s needs and values, shared interdisciplinary knowledge, family involvement and support, and anticipation of meaning (Blount, 2019). Patient-centered care ensures minimal waste of resources and tries to avoid medical errors as much as possible. Although Sue Baier’s narration of illness is sad, it has a happy ending with great lessons on how teamwork and genuine concern for patients can help improve quality of life and enhance recovery.
The book’s co-author, Baier lived in Houston with her husband and children, she was a housewife. She realized that she had a problem when in December of 1980, she was taking the orange juice, and it burned her lips (Baier & Schomaker, 1989). There was a fast turn of events from that time as, within 48 hours, she was in the intensive care unit, paralyzed with a condition that left her communicating with her eyelids. For four months, her new home was her hospital bed, number 10. Her nurse, Bruce, said that her chart indicated the shortest time she would spend in the hospital was three months. She was mesmerized but, thanks to her strong faith, comforted herself in prayer. The events that follow show great suffering of the body, which she may never have survived were it not for the supportive family and competent medics.
Baier had several health complications that developed from the Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Dr. Lohmann describes the disease as a nerve inflammation followed by other infections like intestinal viruses (Baier & Schomaker, 1989). While the doctors were still explaining the condition, Sue was already presenting the symptoms such as slurred speech, headache when she woke up, and later paralysis of the entire body. Patient value is evident in some gestures that the medics show to comfort her. For example, Nurse Bruce asks if she feels comfortable in bed ten, and Dr. Lohmann shows empathy while confirming the diagnosis (Baier & Schomaker, 1989). The expression of concern and desire to make her feel comfortable is evident in the patient-centered approach.
Multidisciplinary support was required to ensure teamwork and integrated care in handling the challenges that Sue was experiencing. Sue had physical paralysis and could not do basic things like talking, standing, sitting, or even moving her hands. The implication is that communication was extremely difficult, but her nurse learned how she signaled with her eyes. James, her respiratory therapist, put her at ease, and a team of doctors and nurses worked with her (Baier & Schomaker, 1989). While working as a team, it is essential to develop empathy towards clients, creativity in solving challenges, and a co-design investigation (Beres et al., 2019). The medics working with sue sympathized with her situation and tried to help. However, she did not have a consistent team, which may have caused her to be stressed.
Family members are non-professional caregivers whose presence and support aid in the recovery process but may suffer burnout and emotional turmoil. Sue’s husband Bill was mostly by her side praying and taking journals. Her mother and two daughters helped her with different choirs during her recovery (Baier & Schomaker, 1989). In one instance, Sue was glad that Bill explained why she was getting injections every four hours. Surprisingly, the nurses had not bothered to explain to her the reasons for the shots in her hips. Thus, her family offered consistent care and concern that helped with her emotional wellness.
The existing condition can be described within the biological, psychological, and social conditions. Physically, Sue was in pain and had infections despite the paralysis, the result was emotional anguish, evident in her statement that she was a spectator in the unfolding of events (Baier & Schomaker, 1989). Nonetheless, she had great social support from her husband, who never failed to show up, and others. Moreover, the entire congregation of St. Philip Presbyterian church was praying for her. The concepts of transition and continuity imply that the patient’s welfare should continually be upheld during the recovery period (Blount, 2019). In the case of Sue, the medics kept changing, and the majority did not learn to communicate with her, which affected her healing process negatively. The support from her family helped to make things easier for her when the nurses failed.
The patient-centered care model is rooted in valuing the patient’s input and perspective. The challenge in Sue’s case is that there was a communication barrier. When Bill responds to her cards sent to the Netherlands, she says that she wishes she could write her words (Baier & Schomaker, 1989). Her perspectives and values were difficult to determine because she could not talk. Some of the things that she wished for included consistency with her medical team and independence in doing her work.
Patient-centered care should be embraced by all medical professionals now and in the future. One of the issues was changing teams of respiratory therapists, nurses, and doctors without informing patients, thus causing anxiety. Ethics dictate that patients have a right to informed consent and autonomy in making decisions. Despite her paralysis, the nurses should have communicated with Sue because her mind was active all along, and she could signal with her eyes. Future practice should improve patient-centered care through customized care that reflects the needs of the patient.
References
Baier, S., & Schomaker, M. Z. (1989). Bed Number Ten. CRC Press.
Beres, L. K., Simbeza, S., Holmes, C. B., Mwamba, C., Mukamba, N., Sharma, A., Munamunungu, V., Mwachande, M., Sikombe, K., Bolton Moore, C., Mody, A., Koyuncu, A., Christopoulous, K., Jere, L., Pry, J., Ehrenkranz, P. D., Budden, A., Geng, E., & Sikazwe, I. (2019). Human-centered design lessons for implementation science: Improving the implementation of a patient-centered care intervention. JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 82(3), 230-243.
Blount, A. (2019). Patient-centered primary care: Getting from good to great. Springer.