“What Matters to Me” - a new vital sign | Jason Leitch | TEDxGlasgow

When a person is admitted to hospital, they will have their vital signs measured. Vital signs are the most important signs that tell clinical teams about a patient’s life-sustaining functions and are taken to help assess the health of a person and give clues to possible illnesses. One of the biggest challenges facing local and global healthcare delivery is an absence of compassion. The continual focus on improved technical cures and the next new machine or drug has been at the expense of simple care, empathy and understanding. If someone asked you “What matters to you?” how would you answer? Jason’s thought-provoking talk will consider this very question drawing on his own compassion and experience in the health service.
Jason Leitch is the National Clinical Director at the Scottish Government and an Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee. Chosen as the HFMA 2011 UK Clinician of the Year, he was previously a Quality Improvement Fellow sponsored by the Health Foundation at IHI, in Boston from 2005-06. Jason is now a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and a trustee of the Indian Rural Evangelical Fellowship which runs orphanages in south-east India. He has a doctorate from the University of Glasgow, an MPH from Harvard and is a fellow of the three Royal Colleges.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@davythehibee]

Was led here after seeing Jason talking about coronavirus. Thought the name was familiar..yes if you are watching Jason, you stood for me at my Baptism in 1989. I am also a healthcare worker now

[@lozareth9472]

Thank you. I was lead here for uni but I’m glad I watched it. I’m going to try this with my residents and their family when they come in.

[@OurWedding2012]

What matters to you seems a great initiative in a NHS system, which often dehumanises the patients rights and feeling of self worth. If you have ever been in hospital you will be familiar with Dr’s who turn up and talk about you with a nurse without introducing themselves to you. Worse still if they appear at your bed with a group of students, again don’t introduce themselves to you, don’t wear name badges and talk about you instead of to you and ask “what is important to you”. I appreciate not all are like this but I have seen enough who are when dealing with myself or relatives.

[@bobstewart9084]

Anyone who can communicate like that is a real asset when we are going through a crisis. Better than most politicians at disseminating facts and laying them out calmly and clearly.

[@witterquickly]

His updates throughout the whole virus pandemic has been spot on: engaging, informative and empathetic - when you compare that with most politicians around these days, you can see why Jason is doing well in his field.

[@bernardcollins8731]

Mr Leitch is an outstanding communicator, an essential quality in this time of covid uncertainty. This very morning he was interviewed on radio 4 about a corona outbreak amongst Glasgow students. He laid out the facts calmly and concisely, and when invited to criticise and blame student behaviour (lack of social distancing etc) he explained the difficulties being faced by young people returning to universities in an appropriate, non judgemental, and sympathetic way, resisting the easy resort to blaming, a tactic so favoured by the ideologically driven Westminister Conservatives. The contrast between Mr Leitch's approach and that of his counterpart Matt Hancock is stark. The people of Scotland are extremely lucky to be served by Jason Leitch. Well done and thank you sir!

[@witterquickly]

@Matt You're a troll, right? If you stop testing, the virus disappears? Is that what happened with spanish flu etc?

[@andrews6341]

he gets paid well

[@jockd7]

He is a dentist NOT a professor which is a honorary title he got another con by this GOVERNMENT...I have never believed a word he has said from the beginning...

[@dbell8336]

I loved the feeling in the video because it made me feel good about healthcare when I thought about it because not everyone giving service in healthcare is a horrible person but some people only look at their job in healthcare as a way to put food on the table.This in my opinion is the wrong way to look at a job in healthcare. Do you really want to be a patient of a worker in healthcare that only looks at taking care of you part of your job? I can personally say that my mother works in a hospital and although she is not a part of the what matters to me program she makes everyone feel like she cares about them and she works very hard to make her patients feel that they are cared for and that she feels their needs are important. It made me happy to hear that this what matters to me program is making people feel good and helping people like Paige that they talked about in the video or about Rose. They were able to be looked at by things that matter to them, not what is wrong with them. I believe that we need to adapt this into our healthcare jobs here in the United States. Do you really want someone taking care of you who doesn't have this state of mind?

[@wd3791]

I really never agree with healthcare because it is not free and the poor people in America can not even afford it but the rich people are over here paying whatever they have to because who the hell cares where their money goes,I mean they can just pull out more money and use it on whatever the hell they want because they are rich!They do not need to worry about paying bills or for healthcare because they already have money so why not dish out money to whoever says they have to pay something.Although this video really did make me feel good too because it shows people who work for healthcare seem to care about the people they are taking care of and they do not just think about the pay check but some people sadly only care about the pay check.I think it is very heart warming to know that healthcare workers take the time to see what matters to people instead of just looking at them as a patient.I think we need to bring this system to America because then we can help get the greedy people that work in healthcare out of that job.I never understood why people were allowed to work in healthcare if they have no heart,it just makes the patients life worse while they are getting whatever help they need.It should be mandatory to have this program in every healthcare environment because it will make us step back from our job and say,"hey these are just regular people like me" because I know many people do not think like this.They have money signs in their eyes because that is all they see their patients as is money.I can say that I personally do not want someone taking care of me who does not care about myself as a person because they probably would not be very nice to me and they would not treat me as well as someone who takes the "What matters to me" program into mind.I want a healthcare worker who is all about getting me healthy again and making sure I am taking steps towards my goal of reaching a better me but I know everyone isn't like that and I wish everyone could be like that,it would make the world a better place in my opinion.I want a genuine person that loves their job and does the best they can because they want to,not because they want the money.We should all stand together to meet this standard and get the crappy workers out of the system and put the right workers in these types of jobs because they deserve to be there and getting paid for all the work they do each and every day because they go above and beyond! Let us all stand together and get the workers out who slack,do not do their job, and take this amazing program in mind because they do not deserve the pay check they are getting!

[@bobbobby3572]

Hey I commented on one of your other videos and decided to subscribe to you because I enjoy your thoughts and what you have to say and this is another interesting topic in my opinion.I think that everyone should get treated like a human being and that we should notice things that make them who they are.When I was in the hospital recently for a pretty bad infection, I had this one amazing nurse who would always take the time to know things I liked and things that I was passionate about.She really made my time hospitalized as enjoyable as it could be.There was also this one nurse near the end of my stay in the hospital that didn't give two shits about if I ate my dinner or if my favorite color was red.She got annoyed with me when I would ask for my medication and she just seemed to hate everything about her job.I often question why some people go into the healthcare field if they hate working with people and never come to work with a smile on their face, but then I remember why I go to work some days..the pay is good.I do not work in healthcare but some days I cant stand the place I work some days and on those days I still force a smile because I need the paycheck at the end of the week.This is not the way you should feel though when you are working in the healthcare field.I feel this way because some of those people in the hospitals are in their long term and they have to be around the healthcare workers all day long,so why would they want to be around people that are nasty and do not make them feel good when they internally do not feel good.I know from experience that it made my time worse while having nasty healthcare workers because I felt like I was a bother to them and that they didnt care about me.Although,that one amazing worker that I had taking care of me made me feel better about my stay because she actually got to know me during my stay. I feel that the women who took care of me during my stay had this mentality about her which is the "what matters to me" type of way to think.She personally asked me some of my favorite things to do when I was living on the outside instead of asking my things about my stay in the hospital.She cared what I enjoyed to do and that made me feel so much better.I agree with you that everyone should have this program mandated into the healthcare field because it would help the people that they are taking care of tremendously. We could show the patients that they are not just another person, we want to make them feel special and make them feel like they matter. I think that is what the "what matters to me" program is all about.Its about making people feel good and having them feel like we actually care and we want to see them do better. I know many of my friends that are in the healthcare field and they are so genuine and tell me how they want to make a change in the world, and I personally feel that they do this program every day, even though they have never heard of this one, they follow the steps to it very closely. These are the type of people that we need in this field work because they are the type of people that make this world a better place.I think we should all unite to make this program happen all over the world! I am sure that if we did a survey among the United States of America that we would find that people are already doing variations of this program so why not just adapt it into all parts of the world in my opinion. We need to fish out all of the bad healthcare workers and we could do that bu this program. We could have our patients do a survey on if their caregiver actually did the steps of this program and if they repeatedly did not then we would know they are not being genuine about their work.

[@ladyj5331]

I don't think I'll be the only Scot thinking well this didn't quite take off at my local hospital 😢

[@scottsofardlair13]

Ironically, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a huge American Corporation. They are being paid a huge fee for their input into the Scottish version of the NHS. Most Scots have no idea how much money from the UK gov is being syphoned off to corporations and their shareholders. Maybe they should try to find out. Don't be fobbed of by the defence that the the (IHI) is not for profit organisation. That would be totally misrepresenting the basis to any conglomerate.

[@pompoms9002]

Ironically its not "The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a not-for-profit organization promoting health improvement by advancing the quality and value of health care."

[@joycearnfield5946]

Looking for old Fiat 500 car

[@Sunburst75]

It's true Leitch is a dentist, but what he tells us comes from scientists. It's not his own opinion. He's done a good job so far. Clearer information put out than Boris and his clowns.

[@andrews6341]

Lol a dentist and another liar

[@zeuszeus00]

this guy is a dentist, not a medical doctor ... so, why is he the National Clinical Director at the Scottish Government during the Covid-19 scandal? and why is he leading people to believe (in this video) that he is a medical doctor? ... note he talks about health care professionals, but does not once mention doctors ... he also talks about what "we" do when you (the audience) come into hospital ... last time I checked dentists do not meet patients in hospitals!

[@thomashenrycarter]

He is a dentist by primary training. He then completed a doctorate and went on to become a fellow of both Glasgow and Edinburgh colleges. Not everybody who studies to be a dentist works in a local practice taking out teeth. Many dual train in both medicine and dentistry, performing complex head and neck reconstruction surgeries. I have had the pleasure of working with many of them in the hospital. So in fact your statement about dentists not meeting patients in hospital is not correct. I am sure Professor Leitch will have met many many hospital patients during his career and is exceptionally well qualified for his role.

[@maymaitland9538]

Nonsense

[@maymaitland9538]

Nonsense Zeuszeus00

[@zeuszeus00]

@@thomashenrycarter are you suggesting that this guy is a medical doctor? ... as far as I can ascertain, he is NOT ... so how is he National Clinical Director for Scotland? ... I could understand Chief Dental Officer, but he is National Clinical Director for some reason!

[@zeuszeus00]

@@maymaitland9538 the lady doth protest too much, methinks! ... she should learn how to debate and while she is at it she might care to learn some good manners!

[@davidGPS95]

His voice is very annoying.

[@Heresjohny603]

Laughable a dentist telling the nation to wear masks during the plandemic 😂 😂

[@alanaustin9664]

Epitome of a charlatan .