Page 6 - October 2020 Ulupono

Showing Compassionate Care from a Distance
by Rachael K. Aquino, PhD, MS
Senior Program Manager, COPE Health Scholars, Adventist Health Castle
In March of this year, the world stopped
as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic (specifically, SARS-CoV-2). We were
asked to work from home and our
children were asked to learn from home. Additionally, health systems and care facilities asked families to visit with their loved ones virtually instead of in-person due to the severe health risks related to
the coronavirus. These abrupt and ongoing changes have caused emotional pain, stress and loneliness for so many people. Of particular significance is the issue of chronic loneliness, especially in the inpatient and care home setting. Our former U.S. Attorney General Dr. Vivek Murthy has studied chronic loneliness and has found that is has a significant impact on a person’s overall health and may lead to social recession1. Another study has shown that there might be a correlation between loneliness and an increased risk for developing dementia and Alzheimer’s2,3. Lastly, interestingly enough, it is not just our patients that are affected by chronic loneliness, it is also affects some of our healthcare professionals too.
In response to the concern of the growing perception of loneliness, the pre-health professionals or COPE Health Scholars at Adventist Health Castle have sought to take action. Our COPE Health Scholars are high school and college students that aspire to become healthcare professionals in the future. They complete one four hour shift per week at minimum in the hospital at Adventist Health Castle. That said, in March and then again in July all Health Scholar activity was put on hold and the scholars could no longer enter the hospital. All of our scholars understood and were committed to keeping the patients and staff safe
from further exposure to the coronavirus. However, the Health Scholars still wanted to find ways to connect with both patients and staff.
Over the course of three months, our COPE Health Scholars have designed and implemented over a dozen of community-
6 | ULUPONO - OCTOBER 2020
and hospital-outreach projects. Even though our Health Scholars were on hold from being physically present in the hospital, they found ways to connect with staff and show their appreciation from a distance. They also founds ways to practice compassionate care and build their virtual bedside manner. Some of their projects included raising money to put together a food care package lovingly entitled, “Grubs for Scrubs”. This food care package for the staff members at Adventist Health Castle also included delicious gelato! In another project our Health Scholars collected “Get Well Cards” for patients, donated clothes to patients in need (top right) or donated little baby beanie hats for newborns in the Birth Center. Two Health Scholars, who are also fourth year nursing students, organized a virtual Nursing School Information Session and a Blood Drive on- campus at Adventist Health Castle (coming up on Sunday, October 11!). Both events were and are open to the community.
In a project that reached beyond the walls of Adventist Health Castle, our Health Scholars volunteered in uniform at a homeless shelter serving food and helping out in any way
that they could (middle right). In another project, a handful of Health Scholars put together over a 100 postcards for residents at The Plaza at Punchbowl, an assisted living facility. These postcards were put together just in time for Grandparents Day on September 15, 2020 (bottom right). The postcards had notes of affirmation
and positive, uplifting thoughts. The Health Scholars put these postcards together in effort to remind the residents that even though we are separate because of social distancing, they are still loved and not alone.
These community- and hospital-outreach projects put together by the COPE Health Scholars at Adventist Health Castle are a reminder of our hospital’s governing idea that love matters. In all that our Health Scholars do, they do it with love and for the benefit of our patients, inside and outside our hospital walls, and for the benefit of the healthcare professionals they work side-by- side with and aspire to become.
1: Vivek H. Murthy and Alice T. Chen.
The Coronavirus Could Cause a Social Recession, The Atlantic. March 22, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ archive/2020/03/america-faces-social- recession/608548/
2: Angelina R Sutin, PhD, Yannick Stephan, PhD, Martina Luchetti, PhD, Antonio
Terracciano, PhD, Loneliness and Risk of Dementia, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Volume 75, Issue 7, September 2020, Pages 1414–1422, https://doi. org/10.1093/geronb/gby112
3: Holwerda TJ, Deeg DJH, Beekman
ATF, et al. Feelings of loneliness, but not social isolation, predict dementia onset: results from the Amsterdam Study of the Elderly (AMSTEL) Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 2014;85:135- 1421