Reimagining Person-Centred Care—In the Public Square

Abstract

In 2010, I began making monthly hospital visits to receive infusions of Tysabri, a drug designed to slow the progression of MS. Since that time, I have had many different experiences of Person-centered care in the public health system. As a patient I expect high-quality care that is safe and valuable in my treatment plan, however, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care goes so far as to describe Person-centered care as being an ideal experience for patients, their carers, and family. The focus of this respectful and responsive care is the preferences, needs, and values of individual patients. Since March 2020, I have been acutely aware of how a global pandemic shapes the experience of being in a hospital. As I attended my treatment in August 2021, news that our current lockdown was being extended to include a curfew, instigated a shift in the virtual boundaries I rely upon in the ward in my experience of Person-centered care and the hospital was briefly hybridized, becoming a virtual public square. I was called upon to see and care for others, rather than prioritize my own needs. In the following days, I made art to make sense of the experience and reimagine my expectations of Patient-centered care during a global pandemic. This paper employs image making in a Practice-led inquiry to consider the reciprocal nature of Person-centered care and addresses some of the implications for this kind of care from a patient’s perspective.