Background: It has been well established that increasing age is associated with decreasing functional ability in older adults. It is important to understand the specific factors that affect instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and functional independence among older adults with sensory disabilities.

The voice and role of "patient" in patient safety were explored by the Calgary Health Region's Patient and Family Safety Council perspective and the Calgary Health Region, Calgary, Alberta, Canada--an important collaboration for enhanced patient safety. Insights into patient safety were shared and coauthored in this article by the Patient and Family Safety Council with members of the Calgary Health Region staff. The Patient and Family Safety Council members were asked to respond to articles written about the role of patient in patient safety, without direct communication with patients. The authors of this article intended to demonstrate only a few of the ways in which patient involvement and feedback through partnership turn knowledge into action and help inform patients about safety practices and procedures.

The purpose of this inquiry was to evaluate the efficacy of prostate cancer education sessions. Implementation of 3-h patient educational sessions was intended to provide men newly diagnosed with localized prostate cancer, who face difficult and complex decisions, information about potential treatment options. Fifty-seven men completed the distress thermometer assessment before the education session to assess baseline levels of distress. Seven of the men were interviewed post-educational session to determine the degree of knowledge transfer from the session. This study explored the efficacy of the patients' learning experience using an interpretive phenomenological research approach. Resulting data revealed that these patients, as adult learners, were distressed and that, despite the availability of pertinent medical content, the subject material was not learned as intended or readily understood. The conclusion drawn from this preliminary applied educational research study was that the education model used was less than efficacious at ensuring that sufficient knowledge transfer was achieved for medical treatment decision-making processes. These findings suggest a need for future research to explore the application of adult learning theories and approaches that may offer enhanced knowledge translation and transfer for prostate cancer education programs.

No abstract

The alliance concept is an essential component of therapeutic relationships. Contrary to empirical evidence, its relevance is often not acknowledged in medical encounters. This circumstance invites the question, ‘‘How can the doctor and patient connect relationally with each other to improve the communication process and promote healing?’’ We propose that healing can be accomplished through dialog that emphasizes the collaborative nature of the partnership between the doctor and patient. The typical conversation in a medical encounter may be reduced to an information exchange and a medium for prescribing directives. This being-with approach can override patients’ involvement in the process. A positive doctor–patient relationship may be one of the most important, and most frequently overlooked, factors for predicting patient response to negative medical information. Receiving such news is potentially upsetting for the patient and may require the doctor to let go of the conversational medical agenda and adopt a being-for mode of relationship. We propose that this approach invites the doctor and patient to work together and negotiate how to manage the chronic illness eliciting patient-preferred treatment options. The authors propose the adoption of the being-for relationship as a way of enhancing the therapeutic potential of the doctor–patient relationship.