Tag Archives: success

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    Behind the Scenes: Perfection for the Patient

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    Guest post written by Kelley Peterson. Kelley serves as a full time journalist for Solaris Hospice and helps develop the narrative for end of life care as well as preserve patient and family stories.

    I am a list-maker. Anything and everything that I can write down on a clean sheet of notebook paper satisfies me, but I can’t just make one large list of several different departments. Each category must have it’s own headline and nothing can be misspelled. Perhaps that is my perfectionist mind-set kicking in, but behind every human, is a mind reeling with reason. Continue reading →

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      Pieces of The End Of LIfe Puzzle

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      Social workers and chaplains are one of the first core team members that introduce hospice and end of life philosophy to the patient. The initial visit is critical in building the trust factor. Social workers generally have to rid preconceived ideas or beliefs about their discipline. Chaplains sometimes have the same issues with the complexities of spiritual backgrounds. Patients at times question if the chaplain will change their foundation of beliefs. Our social workers and chaplains are skilled, professional, and knowledgeable in assessing for the psychological, social, and spiritual needs of the patient and family. This is where the pieces of the puzzle start to come together.

      Over time, social workers and chaplains, also known as Family Services, develop skills and a knowledge base that are focused on maximizing the quality of life for the patient and family, and promoting and supporting positive changes in the patient. A common practice for helpers in our society is to approach those they help as defective in some way and assume their problems result from their personal flaws or weakness. This approach can create a web of negative expectations about the patient, the patient’s environment, and the patient’s capacity to deal with the problems of daily life. Continue reading →

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        Building Confidence & Trust

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        When you think of someone who is confident, who comes to mind? Is it someone who is close to you that you admire, or a movie star? How about an athlete? Maybe just someone you would like to be? Confidence is a feeling of self-assurance; a feeling of trust in a person, reliance; good faith.

        It was once said, “People of capability inspire us.” What capability do you see in people that you believe are confident? What are those characteristics? Now think of someone who exudes low trust. Gandhi said, “The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.” In hospice the moment we receive a referral, we start building that trust dynamic with our patients, families, doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, and community. In building that trust, we must present ourselves confident of the knowledge of hospice philosophy and services available to them.  You might ask, “How do we do that?” Continue reading →

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          Top Ten Positive Approaches in Dealing with Difficult People

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          In life, be it at work, home, or school, we have people in our lives that are sometimes called our “sandpaper person.” These people tend to just rub us the wrong way. There are many different difficult personalities that we deal with on a daily basis. In the book Difficult People at Work by Business Management Daily these personalities are categorized into several types.  There are Power Players: Tyrants, Bullies, Credit Grabbers, Malignants, Power Posturer as well as Indirect Aggressors: Button Pushers, Putdown Artists, Saboteurs, and Undercover Operators. Some are described as Underachievers: Coasters, Peddlers, Space Cadets, Success-Phobes, Wise Guys. Other difficult personalities are Mercurials, Zip-Lips, Perfectionists, Control Freaks, and Bulldozers.

          There is no escape from difficult people. So how do we handle the people that rub us the wrong way? What can give us peace in any situation? Can we prepare before anything happens? Here are some positive helpful hints in dealing with a variety of difficult people: Continue reading →

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            The Secret To Being Great At Anything

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            I have two daughters, 8 and 10 years old, who are playing basketball for the first time this year. Basketball was by far my favorite sport in high school so I was naturally excited to see my girls learn the game, and more importantly, to step into my destiny as their coach (not really). I attended both their first practices and was pleased as they seemed to be picking it up well. Then, game day arrived. My 10 year old was up first and I watched with mind-numbing frustration as her team was annihilated 55-6. There were obviously many things my daughter and her team had to learn.

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            As painful as it was to watch, I realized that within that crushing defeat was the secret to greatness. Most people, if they are honest, really want to be great at something. If people were given the choice to be great at one thing, almost everyone would choose something. A great singer, athlete, business man, doctor, artist, or a thousand other things. But why do most people never achieve greatness? I believe it’s because the secret to being great at anything requires the courage to be horrible at first.

            Continue reading →