At this moment in time, Proseom is still just an idea. An intention to make hospital experiences better for those who are being treated in hospital and those who work within the UK healthcare system. The idea is to do this with an in person team of active listeners and storytellers called ‘super-connectors’ (SCs). SCs will spend face to face time with patients , staff (front and backline), volunteers and visitors, resulting in poems written for them about what is important to them as patients, health workers etc., and simply as human beings.
These poems will be uploaded onto a mobile application (Proseom) that will add to an offline library of therapeutic and hospital community strengthening content including guided meditations, healing music and spiritual teachings from a diverse selection of faiths all geared towards supporting patient recovery or making peace with their condition and generally strengthening the fabric of those that make up hospital communities, ward by ward and trust by trust.
The poems written face to face will not only serve as ways to connect with the individuals that make up a hospital community and allow them to reflect and process their current conditions, thereby improving patient experience. They will also serve as innovative service evaluation data collecting tools for trusts. Furthermore, as the poems will be available to other individuals with similar conditions or health workers that may be part of the same hospital community but never have the time to get to know one another. Proseom will provide a way for individuals to get to know one another in a way that is not possible currently. That is through poems as a form of narrative medicine.
By using AI appropriately and the digital capabilities available in todays world we believe Proseom is scalable and has the potential to benefit patients not only within UK healthcare but on a global scale in multiple languages. Before this is possible however, research and development of Proseom as a concept needs to take place in one hospital across several wards.
Why is this necessary?
Nobody wants to be in hospital. From a psychological point of view it is seen as at best a monotonous place, where the biggest challenge is to somehow relieve boredom whilst waiting for a consultation or treatment. At its worst, it is a terrifying place where one has to face one’s own mortality. Either end of the spectrum is likely to result in stress, anxiety, bouts of depression, feelings of loneliness, isolation and disempowerment.
At this moment in time the demand for more emotional and secular spiritual support for patients and staff is far out stripping supply within the UK healthcare system. Stress on both patients and staff ultimately leads to poorer quality of care for patients and higher burnout rates for staff.
Is this just an unavoidable side effect of how medical care is best delivered?
Proseom believes these side effects are absolutely avoidable. Giving hospital communities the resources to support their emotional and spiritual well being and innovative way to connect would not only complement, but also augment patient’s bodily treatment plans as well as improve staff retention rates and counter compassion fatigue.
There is a lot of lip service given to holistic modalities of patient centred care. But if we look at where the resources are going and have been going for a very long time, the balance between focusing on patients anatomically and focusing on them as individuals that are more than just their bodies. The balance still very much tilts disproportionally, in Proseom’s view, towards the body rather than the psyche of the patients and staff who care for them.
How do we find that balance?
Simply put, by funding the research, development and application of projects such as Proseom with the intention of creating a scalable software and service then this imbalance can start to be readdressed.
Why a virtual companion if what patients need is more human connection?
In order to create a viable service that ensures value for money and scalability, the digital technology available must be used to ensure as many patients have access to some sort of emotional and spiritual support even when face to face support is not available. All Proseom’s content will be very human as the idea is much of it will come from the in person engagements made by SCs.
What needs to happen next?
The next step in the project is to run a trial of Proseom as a service and software within a hospital community. This has already been done informally at King’s College Hospital by one of Proseoms founders Simon J Hopker using the Purple Bridge Poetry Method.
This method of engaging with staff and patients needs to be formally tested and a prototype app must be developed as a further step to scaling the project and reaching as many hospital communities as possible.
Brilliant idea, I've been in hospitals both as a patient and health worker, and had relatives in them - there is a huge need for this kind of thing!