FROM THE EDITOR'S PEN
/ The Moment
/
Editorial List
There comes a moment in the development of
any important skill set where we first feel the
confidence of our newly acquired abilities.
For pilots, it may be the first solo flight; the
highwire acrobat most likely crosses that
threshold once the safety net is taken away; and
I imagine that surgeons feel it with the very
first cut into a living patient.
Today, at the Creston, Iowa, Fearless
Caregiver conference hosted by the Area XIV
Agency on Aging, I learned of such a moment for
a newly minted Fearless Caregiver. A
gentleman in the first row raised his hand
during the question and answer period to ask the
expert panel about how best to work with the
health care system. His wife is living with
Parkinson’s disease and they were at the event
together as carepartners. She has had
Parkinson’s for many years and he has learned to
become her informal care manager whenever she is
in the hospital. He said that he never
hesitates to ask the healthcare professionals
(including doctors) if they washed their hands
before they start to treat his wife. Some stop
immediately and wash or rewash before they start
treatment.
How many of us would feel easy about asking
that question of our doctors as they walk into
the examination room? A true
Fearless Caregiver moment if I ever heard one.
Go ahead and try it the next time you take
your loved one for an appointment. Let us know
what happens.
Gary Barg
Editor-in-Chief
gary@caregiver.com
