If you get cancer, it often means intensive medical treatment right away. That’s normal: you’ll need medication to combat the disease. But cancer patients are more than just their illness, and treatments are more than just medical help. Professor Tessa Kerre emphasizes the importance of kinder care, or making healthcare human. The Ghent University reading project is a good example of this.
Recalling memories
This reading project brings students and patients closer together: twenty students from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences read to an equal number of cancer patients. They do this during hospital admissions, which can often be for a very long time. Each student reads to one patient. Not just in a straightforward way: they actually take their time and make breaks to exchange ideas about the book, poem or short story. Why? Well reading during treatment diverts attention from anything to do with the disease. The extracts make patients think back to certain moments in their lives. Sometimes these bring back good memories, but sometimes texts can be more difficult and make even painful matters discussable. Professor Tessa Kerre (head of the Hematology Clinic at UZ Gent and senior lecturer at Ghent University) is one of the driving forces behind the project. Postdoctoral researcher and psychologist Gaëlle Vanbutsele is also accompanying the project, together with a few other colleagues. “It is incredible how quickly many of our students develop a strong bond with their patient. It gives an extra dimension to healthcare.”
Alleviate medical care
The human aspect of care is one of Tessa’s obsessions. “Of course medical care is essential. But cancer treatment is so much more than a chemo pill or a radiation session. For example, I always talk to my patient. I ask how their family is, for example. Or I talk to them about the photos in their room or about the book on their nightstand. For me, that is kinder care, and an integral part of the medical care. Through this project, students get to know patients as human beings. They learn that healthcare is so much more than just medical assistance, and that is very important in their later career as a healthcare provider.”
Stronger through connection
The seed for the reading project was sown three years ago. That was when a number of colleagues from the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy came together with care providers from UZ Gent. They soon came up with the idea of having students read to cancer patients with active treatment. Cancer treatments are often very intensive and take over a patient's life. Reading provides relaxation, and moments of rest and distraction. The initiators also included some members of Het Lezerscollectief, a Flemish subsidiary of The Reader Organization from Great Britain. This is a network of readers who organize reading meetings for people who have problems accessing literature. For example, prisoners, people in a residential care center or people with psychological problems. Thanks to these meetings, they’ve discovered that reading together connects people, and establishes a connection that makes them stronger and more resilient. “Of course we now have to wait for the results, but we expect a similar connection between the participants of the reading project. The effect may be even greater here, because the reading is much more intimate with us, and does not take place in a group”, says Tessa. “That can be an important added value in a treatment.”
Read also
Is it easier to live with HIV than with the stigma that surrounds it?
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, surfaced in the eighties. Long gone are the times when the virus was a sure death sentence. Still, even after all these years the stubborn stigma that surrounds HIV persists. Why is that and what can be done about it?
No more painful mammograms thanks to researchers in Ghent?
Researchers around the world are looking for innovative ways to detect and treat breast cancer. So are experimental oncologist An Hendrix and medical oncologist Hannelore Denys, two top researchers from Ghent.
Can the cause of Parkinson’s be found in our intestines? “More research is required, but that costs money”
There are currently an estimated 35,000 cases of Parkinson’s in our country. This figure increases every year. In fact, it is the fastest growing neurodegenerative illness, yet we know so little about it. Professors Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke and Patrick Santens are looking to gain knowledge of the disease with their research. “But that means that particularly large sums of money are required, and these are often unavailable”, they confirm.
Imke searches for lost voices
Imke Kissel researches unilateral vocal cord paralysis and wants to develop therapies tailored to the needs of patients.