Patient Wearing GLASS

When I was in nursing school I remember thinking to myself, "Is this ever going to end!!!??".  I think people underestimate what it takes to get through nursing school. I would take a test and receive a C, and think, "you have to be kidding me, I have studied hours upon hours for this test." I always felt that the questions were made to confuse me. I kept my eye on the prize and moved forward. All I have ever wanted to do as a nurse is help people. I just wanted to do the right thing. So I finally finished nursing and I was ready to save the world, right? I got off to a really bumpy start, I am great at communicating with people, but sometimes I am a little to wordy. Then all of a sudden I am in really difficult situations and having to have difficult conversations with families and patients. Not like the ones I had in nursing school, where I explained their diets, side effects of their medications, or their plan of care. As a "real nurse" I had to talk to people about death and dying. I had to make split second decisions where communication was key. How come no one told me I was going to have to do this!?!? How come no one helped me communicate appropriately and directly? It would have been nice to have that practice, and even more beneficial if I were able to review how effective my communication was in uncomfortable situations. This is where I circle back to the innovation zone. We recently started working with Indiana University School of Medicine, and had the opportunity to help med students work on their communication skills. The students practice giving bad news to standardized patients. They are recorded for review, but we wondered how we could make the experience even more meaningful to the students. The video below is a patient wearing GLASS while a  Medical Student tells the patient that his pancreatic cancer has metastasized and offers him hospice. In doing this we hope that this perspective will help students see what they are doing right and focus on what they need to work on. When it comes down to it, I learned a lot through my schooling over the years, but there is always room for improvement. With new technology we have the opportunity improve our education and create more prepare clinicians. Does this video save the world? No, but just maybe it will somehow inspire you to be innovative and creative for our patients. What we did wasn't rocket science it's just being creative with what you have.