Ag Eisteacht highlights the importance of a relational approach in healthcare
Dr Maeve Hurley, our founder and CEO, has been invited to speak at the Royal College of Physicians Ireland’s (RCPI) Quality in Healthcare Summit at No.6 Kildare Street, Dublin on Friday 22nd March 2019.
Up to 300 healthcare professionals, including frontline staff, managers and policy makers, are expected to attend the conference to hear about the latest in healthcare quality improvement, a rapidly evolving science that has seen lasting improvements to health services across the world.
Dr Maeve Hurley’s talk ‘Embedding a relational approach in healthcare’ will highlight the importance of taking a relationship-centred approach to practice.
Her presentation will focus on the relationship between the practitioner and the patient, as well as highlighting the importance of seeing the patient in the context of his or her relationships and how those relationships can help to strengthen and protect their health.
She said: “Relationships matter. The quality of relationships is a key determinant of health and wellbeing, acting as both a buffer and a risk factor in health outcomes.
“When people are finding it hard to cope, particularly in their relationships, research shows that they often turn to a frontline practitioner in their lives whom they already trust. This could be a doctor, a public health nurse, a teacher, a social worker, community worker or someone working within the homeless services. As a frontline practitioner, this can be difficult to manage, particularly when balancing a heavy caseload – and given the pressures these service providers are operating under.
“I will be talking about the importance of moving from a paternalistic approach to one of mutual participation in which the patient feels understood as a human being with their own beliefs and values.
“It’s about building relationships of trust.”
Ag Eisteacht is Ireland’s only provider of relational training and we have trained over 2,000 practitioners to date across health, social care, community and education.
Our brief intervention training, ABLE (Adopt a relational approach, Build, Listen and Empower), gives practitioners a framework, the skills and resources to establish and maintain quality relationships, while being mindful of their own time, boundaries and wellbeing.
Dr Maeve Hurley said: “This is a subject close to my heart, and it is a great honour to have been invited by the RCPI to share evidence-informed insight with healthcare professionals.”
Our vision is that all practitioners in Ireland are empowered with the skills and resources to respond in a sensitive and focussed way when someone turns to them for help, particularly during times of change or relational distress.
“We train practitioners to manage and boundary difficult conversations,” said Dr Maeve Hurley.
“It’s about staying with the patient’s agenda and using reflective listening skills to allow the patient to get in touch with their experience and often to gain insight and clarity on what is going on for them so that they are empowered to find solutions themselves.”
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