PATIENT-CENTERED CARE 1

Patient-Centered Model in Primary Care
It was 8 years ago that I lost my father suddenly to Coronary Artery Disease, so when my mother began to complain recently to me about mild shortness of breath, fatigue, and indigestion I took it very seriously. I immediately performed a nursing assessment. She did not appear in apparent distress and her vital signs were stable, so I opted to take her to the primary care physician rather than the ER. I believe this was in the best interest of my mother. Not only were her physical complaints addressed, but also the emotional affect that heart disease has on our family. Stewart (as cited in Hart, 2010, p.8) states that “effective patient care requires attending as much to patient’s personal experiences of illness as to their disease.” My mother has been a patient of her primary physician’s office for many years. The physician understands how losing my father suddenly at a young age has affected my mother both physically and emotionally. Though at the time I was unfamiliar with the 6 Components of Patient Centered Care Model introduced to me in Chapter 1 of the Hart book, I now see that the physician’s office did an excellent job addressing all six components of this model.
The 6 Components of Patient Centered Care Model was developed at the University of Western Ontario as a way of integrating exploration of disease with the other physical and psychological components of the patient’s illness they may experience (Hart, 2010). The first component of this model is to explore both the disease and the illness experience (Hart, 2010, p.14). This was addressed upon arrival at the physician’s office. My mother was immediately greeted by an RN who informed us that her vital signs had remained stable and a pulse oximetry reading showed oxygen saturation of 99% on room air. An EKG was also