Education without fear
jow not to scare patients about Y2K
Listen to almost any newscast, read almost any newspaper on any day of the week and you are bound to read something about the year 2000 (Y2K), the millennium bug, and the potential problems it might cause come Jan. 1, 2000. There are some people who are so sure that modern society will come to a screeching halt and chaos will reign that they have retreated to rural hideouts, storing great quantities of food, water, and fuel. So how do home care agencies ensure patients are prepared without causing unnecessary fear?
Many would say they are providing staff and patients with material prepared by the American Red Cross (for a copy of the Red Cross Y2K material, see p. 111, call your local Red Cross chapter, or visit the Red Cross Web site at www.redcross.org/disaster/safety/Y2K.html).
Teri Reed, RN, administrator at Alexanders Home Health in Merced, CA, says there is a fine line between readiness and overreaction. "We really didn’t want to cause fear among our patients," she says. Unfortunately, before Reed could even ready her clients, she had to make sure her 25 nurses were educated on the issues.
"We did manage to scare them, though" she recalls, laughing. "The problem is that something probably will happen. It might be as minimal as your garbage not being picked up. But the fact that you are telling your patients that they have to be prepared for something is a little frightening."
Another issue is how to make sure patients are prepared when many of them are on fixed income and really don’t have the money to prepare as much as they might want. The danger that they would forgo food or medicine in order to stock up on other provisions or have ready cash available is real.
Reed is happy with the Red Cross flyers, which Alexanders is distributing to patients along with lists of local resources — information numbers for local shelters. A small discussion of the issue takes place during the general safety portion of an intake visit, Reed adds.
Alexanders is also updating its general emergency preparedness plan and working on coding patients so that staff can check up on those at highest risk if anything happens on New Year’s Day. The agency is also working with city and county authorities to make sure that patients who need to be evacuated to a shelter — for instance, if the electricity goes out and it’s cold — will be transported.
As the Y2K approaches, Reed says staff will make sure that patients have flashlights, batteries, radios, and adequate food on hand.
Getting ready early, but not too early
The fact that we are still three months from any problem has proved troublesome for Phyllis Rizzo, RN, BS, CHCE, director of home care services at the hospital-based St. Elizabeth Home Care Services in Lincoln, NE.
Initially, Rizzo made use of the Red Cross product, as well as information from her hospital. Its public relations department provided a fact sheet on Y2K that was distributed to staff. The PR staff also wrote a letter about medical equipment that was sent to patients. It stated that if the patient had any equipment issued by the home care agency or the hospital, it would be made compliant. If the patient leased the equipment from another provider, the patient should contact that company; and if they had purchased any medical equipment, patients should contact the manufacturer.
"We got those letters out to patients, included information in admissions packets, and educated the patients on the issue," Rizzo says. "But it took so much time, and people wanted to talk about it. But many of those people won’t be our patients when the time comes."
As a result, that initial effort was halted and won’t resume until the autumn. Then the same information will be provided, with some items highlighted for special attention. For instance, nurses will stress that patients shouldn’t use outdoor grills inside, that those with cars should keep their gas tanks full, and that everyone should have some extra batteries on hand.
"There are some who we tell this to and they just don’t care," Reed says. "The ones who care, though, are the ones who worry."
Rizzo agrees. "They either don’t care or they panic and develop a Chicken Little mentality," she says. "I really don’t think the problems are all going to be on Jan. 1st. I think that it’s more likely that there will be some issues a few months down the line. Foreign companies that aren’t as prepared may cause manufacturing or shipping problems for supplies that we get. And maybe there will be some problems with hoarding of supplies."
Rizzo hopes that the plain speaking style of the Red Cross pamphlet will help to quell some worry and avoid a lot of questions. She is also counting on the three-month lag between St. Elizabeth’s first efforts and later ones will allow other agencies — such as the local Office on Aging — and area newspapers to provide some more education to patients.
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