I am a hospice palliative care nurse and an educator. Did you know that the principles of good palliative care are very similar to the principles of good education?
Good palliative care improves quality of life. Good education improves the quality of life.
Good palliative care centers on the person. Good education focuses on the person as well.
Good palliative care addresses difficult questions. Good education addresses difficult questions.
Good palliative care addresses discomfort. Good education addresses discomfort.
For example, in palliative care you would not leave a person sitting in one position for an entire day, in a bed or in a chair. You would reposition them to prevent discomfort and bedsores. Good education also prevents discomfort and promotes health. So, we reposition learners too. We get them up and moving, so they can engage, participate, and learn better! Because in education we know that if the bum is sore, the brain probably cannot focus!
Care Planning Cookies
At Life and Death Matters, we have what we call Care Planning Cookies. These cookies look like fortune cookies, taste like fortune cookies, and yes, they are fortune cookies.
Inside each cookie is a question or a statement to help stimulate conversation. What would you want if you were living with a serious illness? What would you want if you could not speak for yourself? Who would you want to speak for you? What things are important to you? What things do you not want to live without? A whole variety of questions.
Imagine a set of Care Planning Cookies showing up at your table during a family dinner.
I remember a young woman who said, “My parents won’t discuss any of these topics. I’m going to give some to my grandmother, because my grandmother would love these. My grandmother could bring them out at a family dinner. She could get away with it, and out of respect for her, everyone would have to engage!”
My favourite question
When Michael Sangster asked me to give a short ED talk at the National Association of Career Colleges conference, I thought about these cookies. And I thought about my favourite question from the palliative care world.
Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov is a leading Canadian palliative care psychiatrist. He and his team at Dignity in Care developed what is called the Patient Dignity Question. This is a phenomenal question, and it goes like this:
What do I need to know about you as a person to give you the best care possible?
Read it again, slowly. What do I need to know about you as a person to give you the best care possible?
Applying it to education
Let’s take that question and apply it to education.
What do I need to know about you as a person to give you the best education experience possible?
What an interesting question.
Now, you could use this just like the Patient Dignity Question is used. You could ask the question. The student’s response would be recorded, written out, and edited. Then the student could be asked, “Do you want this on your learning file?” Just like patients are asked, with the Patient Dignity Question, “Would you like this on your medical chart?”
And interestingly enough, in Dr. Chochinov’s research, nearly all patients said they wanted their response on their chart.
So, what would it look like if you were to ask the students in your schools, “What do I need to know about you as a person to give you the best education experience possible?”
My gift and my invitation
My gift to you is the Patient Dignity Question, adapted for education. At the conference, I tucked it inside a Care Planning Cookie. Enjoy!
My invitation to you is to try this question with your students. Get to know them better. Then use what you learn to give them the best education experience possible.
Thank you.
Kath
