Marion is a consumer representative on the Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission safer use of anticoagulants working group. She has lived experience of taking anticoagulants.
In this video Marion and her husband Graham talk about their experience since Marion was prescribed anticoagulants, which was after she was admitted to hospital for replacement of two valves in her heart.
By sharing their experience, Marion and Graham hope to help others who find out they need to take an anticoagulant.
An accessible transcript is available to read or download below.
Download transcript: Marion and Graham's story (31KB, docx)
Audio
[Music plays]
Visual
The video begins. The screen has a white background with a blue brush stroke in the top right and multicoloured tohu on the bottom left. In the middle of the screen are the words ‘Marion and Graham's story: Safer use of anticoagulants | Te āta whakamahi i ngā rongoā ārai poketoto’. The words are then replaced with ‘Marion was put on anticoagulants after she was admitted to hospital for replacement of two valves in her heart’. These words are then replaced with ‘Marion and Graham would have liked the health care team to think about how they were communicating information to them, in what was a highly stressful situation’.
Audio
[Marion] The communication that they gave us was well over our heads. I think the best way for them to have dealt with patients was to come down to their level or get somebody in that can talk to them at that level. Because the doctors and the surgeons and the clinicians, they talk to you in language that you sort of sit there and think, ‘Okay?’, and that's why I said, you know, ‘You're going to take me in, knock me out and wake me up afterwards.’
[Graham] Just got rid of all the big words.
[Marion] Yeah, which is a lot easier. [laughs]
[Graham] There was a lot of information being given to us in amongst the fact that, hey, your wife's about to go into the operating table and may not come back. And of course there's all those things where you're not only trying to process all that, also continue to deal with the things you need to do as a parent.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads, ‘Marion didn’t understand much about the medication she was taking or how it fitted into her overall health’.
Audio
[Marion] I knew the basics that it was going to stop my blood from clotting. But I didn't understand it, and that was the point, that I didn't understand and they didn't actually give me time to understand it.
[Graham] She's on it for life. And it was a case of, this medication is what's going to keep a part of our lives for however much longer we get. We just needed to understand what does this do and why is it there, what's the purpose and how does it kind of fit into the other pharmacy of drugs that she's on.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads, ‘Including Marion's whānau in discussions about her care would have made them feel more confident that they had the information they needed’.
Audio
[Marion] The clinicians need to remember to talk to the people, to talk to the support people, and make sure that they're not just talking to the patient. While I was in hospital, Graham hadn't arrived in the hospital at that time. They just talked to me, and that doesn't work. You only pick up certain things. You need somebody else there to be able to pick up on things that the patient hasn't been able to pick up on.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads ‘Marion says that communication is key when it comes to giving consumers and their whānau information about medicines’. This text is then replaced by, ‘At times it felt hard to ask questions, or know the right questions to ask. Having the opportunity to check back would have been useful’.
Audio
[Graham] Even just asking questions of the people, of the patient and their support people, you know, ‘Does that make sense?’ or, ‘Have you followed what I've said?’ Because that way they can at least check that what they think they've communicated and what's been received is roughly the same thing. At times there was probably not that kind of check-back in the conversation. They just kind of spouted stuff out, gave you a piece of paper and ran away.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads, ‘Marion is a consumer representative for the Te Tāhū Hauora safer use of anticoagulants programme’. This text is the replaced by, ‘By sharing her experience, Marion hopes to help others who find out they need to take an anticoagulant’.
Audio
[Marion] I came from a background where I understood, some of my whānau up in Nūhaka and Wairoa have no idea; they just take it as face value. And this is where the harm comes in. And I think the processes that the clinicians on the anticoagulant working group are trying to put in place are going to help other people and other clinicians to actually speak and listen to their patients more.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads, ‘Thank you to Marion and Graham for sharing their story’. This fades away and text appears which reads, ‘Find out more about the safer use of anticoagulants on the Te Tāhū Hauora website, www.hqsc.govt.nz’. This fades away and in fades the black logo for Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission and Te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa New Zealand Government.
The video ends.
Marion and Graham's story: Accessible transcript
Download transcript: Marion and Graham's story (31KB, docx)
Audio
[Music plays]
Visual
The video begins. The screen has a white background with a blue brush stroke in the top right and multicoloured tohu on the bottom left. In the middle of the screen are the words ‘Marion and Graham's story: Safer use of anticoagulants | Te āta whakamahi i ngā rongoā ārai poketoto’. The words are then replaced with ‘Marion was put on anticoagulants after she was admitted to hospital for replacement of two valves in her heart’. These words are then replaced with ‘Marion and Graham would have liked the health care team to think about how they were communicating information to them, in what was a highly stressful situation’.
Audio
[Marion] The communication that they gave us was well over our heads. I think the best way for them to have dealt with patients was to come down to their level or get somebody in that can talk to them at that level. Because the doctors and the surgeons and the clinicians, they talk to you in language that you sort of sit there and think, ‘Okay?’, and that's why I said, you know, ‘You're going to take me in, knock me out and wake me up afterwards.’
[Graham] Just got rid of all the big words.
[Marion] Yeah, which is a lot easier. [laughs]
[Graham] There was a lot of information being given to us in amongst the fact that, hey, your wife's about to go into the operating table and may not come back. And of course there's all those things where you're not only trying to process all that, also continue to deal with the things you need to do as a parent.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads, ‘Marion didn’t understand much about the medication she was taking or how it fitted into her overall health’.
Audio
[Marion] I knew the basics that it was going to stop my blood from clotting. But I didn't understand it, and that was the point, that I didn't understand and they didn't actually give me time to understand it.
[Graham] She's on it for life. And it was a case of, this medication is what's going to keep a part of our lives for however much longer we get. We just needed to understand what does this do and why is it there, what's the purpose and how does it kind of fit into the other pharmacy of drugs that she's on.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads, ‘Including Marion's whānau in discussions about her care would have made them feel more confident that they had the information they needed’.
Audio
[Marion] The clinicians need to remember to talk to the people, to talk to the support people, and make sure that they're not just talking to the patient. While I was in hospital, Graham hadn't arrived in the hospital at that time. They just talked to me, and that doesn't work. You only pick up certain things. You need somebody else there to be able to pick up on things that the patient hasn't been able to pick up on.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads ‘Marion says that communication is key when it comes to giving consumers and their whānau information about medicines’. This text is then replaced by, ‘At times it felt hard to ask questions, or know the right questions to ask. Having the opportunity to check back would have been useful’.
Audio
[Graham] Even just asking questions of the people, of the patient and their support people, you know, ‘Does that make sense?’ or, ‘Have you followed what I've said?’ Because that way they can at least check that what they think they've communicated and what's been received is roughly the same thing. At times there was probably not that kind of check-back in the conversation. They just kind of spouted stuff out, gave you a piece of paper and ran away.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads, ‘Marion is a consumer representative for the Te Tāhū Hauora safer use of anticoagulants programme’. This text is the replaced by, ‘By sharing her experience, Marion hopes to help others who find out they need to take an anticoagulant’.
Audio
[Marion] I came from a background where I understood, some of my whānau up in Nūhaka and Wairoa have no idea; they just take it as face value. And this is where the harm comes in. And I think the processes that the clinicians on the anticoagulant working group are trying to put in place are going to help other people and other clinicians to actually speak and listen to their patients more.
Visual
[Graphic] A white backdrop with blue text that reads, ‘Thank you to Marion and Graham for sharing their story’. This fades away and text appears which reads, ‘Find out more about the safer use of anticoagulants on the Te Tāhū Hauora website, www.hqsc.govt.nz’. This fades away and in fades the black logo for Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission and Te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa New Zealand Government.
The video ends.
