Business consultant’s guide helps caregivers manage hospital care
The Caregiver's Journal by Marie Gibson is a simple yet powerful tool that helps make sense of the overwhelming hospital experience.
Adult children rarely are prepared for managing the hospitalization of a parent or other loved one – even savvy business advisors such as Marie Gibson. The management consultant and author of Smart Books=Smart Business, a popular business owner’s guide to creating a simple yet effective accounting system, found herself suddenly in the role of caretaker when her father was hospitalized. Her experience inspired her to write a different type of guide, The Caregiver’s Journal, a book designed to support the caregiver’s critical role as advocate for the patient.
The Caregiver’s Journal is the first publication of its kind, specifically organized into sections for tracking day-by-day hospital care, including doctors’ and staff members’ names, tests ordered, medication schedules and patient changes. Additional sections cover details necessary for documenting various therapies, including physical, occupational and respiratory therapy. The book also includes helpful advice, reminders and hospital insider tips. Every line of The Caregiver’s Journal is focused on helping the caregiver become a confident, effective, detailed communicator and successful advocate for the patient.
“I realized that a patient often can’t be a good self-advocate due to illness, medications, surgery, fatigue and many other factors,” Gibson said. A natural organizer, she created her own informal journal to track all of the daily information during her father’s hospital stay, making it easy to share with other family members involved in his care. That became the genesis of The Caregiver’s Journal.
Gibson consulted with medical professionals as well as others who had been thrown into the caregiver role in developing the guide’s design. “I believe the journal actually improved my father’s hospital stay, because it helped me take an active and informed role in his recovery,” she said. “It also greatly relieved stress and kept me from feeling overwhelmed,” she added. The book has received glowing reviews from users across the country, including many caregivers who wished that they had such a powerful tool when dealing with a loved one’s hospitalization.
Since the book’s recent publication, Gibson has been asked to speak at healthcare conferences and to conduct patient service training. Hospitals and other medical providers are encouraging its use in fostering family involvement in patient care to improve outcomes as well as patient satisfaction. The Caregiver’s Journal is available at www.the-caregivers-journal.com for $15.95; volume discounts are available for hospital gift shops and healthcare organizations. To order or for more information, visit the website or call 775-720-3282.
