My advice? Have dinner with Beth.

If you want to reconnect to your PFE work, have dinner with Beth...or another smart friend with extensive patient experience.

I'm a patient, obviously, but I know all of my own stories and I tell them pretty often. Sitting down with Beth for a friendly dinner reminded me of the power of other patient stories and, even more so, having a good ole fashioned conversation about the patient experience.

I wasn't asking Beth for any tips of PFE or trying to learn about a PFE best practice. I was listening to her stories and they reminded me why we care about PFE and why we have to keep working at it!

Beth told me one story about a frustrated CF patient who was considering transferring her care to another health system because of strict, inflexible infection protocols. Infection protocols? This seem pretty clinically cut and dry, no? No. Not when you look at it from a PFE perspective.

These infection protocols require that patients stay in their rooms, no matter what.

For a day or two, sure no problem. But, what about the patient who is hospitalized for weeks or months? At what point to we consider their mental health?

What about the patient whose child wants to come visit but a recent loss of a loved one in that hospital makes that visit to a hospital room traumatic for the child? Is there no room to consider the need of the patient to connect with their child while also considering the child's experience?

If the risk is to the patient, as in this case, and not to the general public, at what point do we allow the patient to make an educated decision about the risks they feel are and are not worth taking in order to balance quality of life, family, work and health?

Beth and I spoke about these and many other situations where the patient could have had the option to make decisions but, instead, the patient's specific perspective was never considered.

We have come so far in this journey. We have so far to go. If you want to remember why PFE work matters, I highly recommend taking the conversation beyond the conferences and beyond the PFACs. Sometimes, a good old fashioned conversation over dinner with a person you like and respect can be just what you need the most.

Thank you, Beth! Let's have dinner again soon!