By Dr. Stephanie Paulmeno, DNP, MS, RN, NHA, CCM, CPH, CDP
Chairman of the Board: The Patient is U Foundation, Inc.
Long time Town of Greenwich/Greenwich Health Department employee, Carol Dixon, has been awarded First Place/Gold Award Winner of the 2022 Compassionate Care Competition.
This is an annual recognition tribute of The Patient is U Foundation/TPIU (TPIU Foundation, Inc – A 501(c)(3) Public Charity). This honor included a $2,000 gift for her sustained commitment to providing care with compassion to those whom she serves as a healthcare professional, as well as for articulating her values so poignantly. Not only has Carol Dixon been a valued member of the Greenwich Department of Health for decades; she is also the kind and melodious voice on the Town’s and Department’s after-hours phone messages as well as a longtime volunteer EMT with the Westport Volunteer EMS. If you’ve been at any of the Greenwich Department of Health’s public health vaccine clinics over the decades, you will have met her.
In her award submission, she drew upon her own perceptions and lived experiences as a recipient of compassionate emergency care as a terrified child; then as the provider of compassionate care that she was rendering as an EMT to a patient; and then again when she was on the receiving end of a nurse’s kindness and compassion when her husband died. One can indeed “Choose Compassion” the title of her submission. Such genuine kind-heartedness is the lifeblood and essence of the type of healthcare and healthcare professionals that TPIU aims to recognize, praise and nurture. Being compassionate takes but a moment in time, yet it can alter the trajectory of the most horrid experience not only for the recipient of that care, but also for the provider.
This year was TPIU’s first time receiving an international submission, which came to us from Taiwan. It reinforced that our messaging on the importance of instilling, recognizing, and supporting health care with compassion is both meaningful and relevant across cultures and around the world. Carol’s award winning submission demonstrated to our “blind” evaluators, that she innately possessed the qualities we aspire to instill or nurture in all healthcare workers. All submissions were de-identified prior to scoring. The rating process used a standardized, percentile-based rating tool and was conducted by 4 independent raters. Carol’s submission (and our 2nd and 3rd place award recipients’ submissions) can be accessed at https://tpiu.org/choose-compassion/, at 2nd Place 2022 TPIU Essay Winner Tin Yan Lam – TPIU Foundation, Inc., and at 3rd Place 2022 TPIU Essay Winner Emily Telensky – TPIU Foundation, Inc). This year’s winners were an EMT, a medical student, and a nursing assistant/nursing student.
The Patient is U Foundation, Inc. (TPIU) is a not-for profit/Public Charity. We educate, recognize and reward practitioners from all levels of care and all areas of service and practice, from support staff to physicians, nurses and other licensed professionals. We recognize that everyone at any level who comes into contact with patients and families plays a critical role, and that each is equally capable of imparting compassion as they carry out their role. TPIU uses its funds to provide educational programs, internships, seminars, and dialogues to students and alumni, as well as to experienced multidisciplinary staff, clinicians, and administrators in order to further compassionate care momentum in community-based care, office practices, agencies, and facilities where patients, loved ones and healthcare providers connect.
At TPIU, we believe that care with compassion:
• Honors the trust patients, family members and loved ones place in their healthcare providers
• Is a commitment made by healthcare providers to those for whom they care
• Means being thorough, competent and engaged when providing care
• Reflects our devotion to our patients and their loved ones; and shows that having compassion makes a difference to our patients and their loved ones
• Is meaningful and measurable and aids positive outcomes for patients and healthcare providers, as well as for facilities, agencies, and practices
Carol’s heartfelt submission depicted so clearly that care provided with compassion is not just a lofty goal for healthcare providers to display if and when they have time. It takes but a moment in time to show compassion (in healthcare or in life). It can be a simple gesture, an expression, a gentle caring touch, or a kind word. Compassion differs from sympathy and empathy in that those good internal emotions are followed up by an action intended to improve another’s plight, reduce their pain, anxiety or suffering, and to make a meaningful human connection at a time when that is so sorely needed. We believe it to be the foundational basis for all patient care as well as for how we care for and treat our own healthcare colleagues. If you or a loved one has had a healthcare crisis, you know when you received compassionate care, and you know when you didn’t! Care with Compassion is, or should be, the Golden Rule of Healthcare. Providers can choose to deliver care with compassion. A missed or a taken opportunity for providing a compassionate care exchange can change the trajectory of a life forever; and that life you change could also be your own.