Patient Empowerment Defined

A patient’s interest, ability and opportunity to think carefully and critically about their health and make their own informed decisions forms the basis of patient empowerment. Salubrity is a word that means to embrace health responsibility so that society as a whole is not burdened by unhealthy conditions. The ideal physician approach to an empowered patient transforms from paternalistic control to a collaborative doctor-patient partnership. Personal health goals along with a patient’s level of understanding, culture and environmental health form the basis for decision-making. Empowerment has also been linked to health literacy – which represents a somewhat critical assessment of a patient’s ability to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Patients are most likely to achieve optimal health if they have a high degree of health literacy along with a high sense of personal empowerment.

If you look in my life and see what I’ve seen…
Sometimes, I just have to tell it like it is… You have full capacity to take better control of your personal health by recognizing that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You have a high capacity for innate healing along with the possibility for a healthy high quality life. When you hold a true sense of value for yourself, you work harder to make better decisions for your health and your life. This message can sound like a broken record but it must be delivered repetitively and practiced consistently. The TRUTH is the TRUTH and looking for the answer outside of the TRUTH does not change the TRUTH. The human body is a tremendous masterpiece formed by a creator who cannot be challenged, cannot be fully comprehended, and can NEVER be duplicated in the – no matter how hard science and man might try. “I can do this!” — This is one of the most rewarding comments I could ever hear.

Did you know?

  • When health care professionals take time to speak with and educate patients about their health conditions – health outcomes improve. These measures may also result in a profound reduction in the overall cost of healthcare.
  • Doctors want to hear about research their patients are doing online.
  • 80% of adult Internet users have looked online for health/medical information.
  • As many as 40% of all medical diagnoses are incorrect.

I believe…

  • If you can see it and believe it, you can achieve it.
  • That death is a natural part of life.
  • We get ONE body that has to last us for as long as we will need it and the best thing we can do is keep it in the best possible shape for as long as we possibly can.
  • It is important to DO YOU.

Favorite Quotes

  • Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. – Goethe
  • I’m tired of looking ’round rooms wondering what I gotta do or who I’m supposed to be, I don’t wanna be anything other than me. – Gavin Degraw
  • I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. – Phillipians 4:13
  • It matters not how strait the gait how charged with punishment the scroll. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. – William Earnest Henley