Reassurance
Definition of Reassurance: The action of removing someone's doubts or fears.
The State Executive Committee of Heartbeat in South Australia has a Reassurance Officer who coordinates reassurance within SA. Each Branch has one or more Reassurance Officers.
The position of Reassurance Officer within the Heartbeat Branches is one that requires compassion, understanding, empathy and guidance with patients who have had or are about to undergo a heart procedure and should be undertaken by a person who has themselves had experience with heart problems.
How does Reassurance work
When a Reassurance Officer visits a patient in hospital or at their home, the reassurance officer should wear a Heartbeat Reassurance Officer identification badge. This badge should include the Heartbeat logo, the Branch name, a personal photo (if possible) and the officer's name.
When the Reassurance Officer visits a patient in the hospital, they should respond to any request made by the medical/nursing staff or social worker, if there is one.
Only non-medical topics should be discussed. The Reassurance Officer does not and will not take the place of any medical staff.
The visits are purely voluntary and the patient should be given every courtesy and respect.
After discussion with the hospitals regarding the best day/days of the week to visit, the Reassurance Officer/s visit the local hospitals to see the newly admitted patients and give them a Heartbeat brochure.
On the second or subsequent visits, a Reassurance Card is given to the patients to complete, if they wish to have one. This card records details of the patient’s name, address, telephone number and procedure undertaken, so that follow-up contact by the appropriate Reassurance Officer can be made.
After completion, the cards are left in a Heartbeat box at the hospital and a Reassurance Officer collects all the completed cards from the hospital at least once a week, after ensuring with the ward clerk that the date of discharge has been added to the card. These cards are then forwarded to the Executive Reassurance Co-Ordinator within a week of discharge.
On receipt of the various Reassurance Cards, the Reassurance Co-ordinator records the details on the cards, then forwards each card to the appropriate Branch for that Branch's Reassurance Officer to contact the patient either by phone, mail or in person, to give the patient reassurance, if needed.
If there is not a Heartbeat Branch in the locality of a patient, the Reassurance Co-ordinator will write to the patient to acknowledge they have returned home from hospital and offer telephone support if the patient finds there is a need. The letter is sent together with a pamphlet which explains what Heartbeat is all about, the locations of the various Heartbeat Branches