Tag: women’s priorities

My video interview with Connie Jorsvik: The “Patient Pathways” workshop

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  Heart Sisters on Blue Sky

I love how former cardiac nurse-turned-independent Patient Navigator Connie Jorsvik introduced our recent online conversation about women, heart disease and serious illness that was broadcast on her Patient Pathways website. Connie began with this profoundly true observation:

“When I was a cardiac nurse, it always seemed like more women than men were admitted after Christmas. Often, these women had been experiencing cardiac symptoms for days – and even weeks. Women tend to put off seeking treatment because we so often put ourselves last on our priority list – and there is no  bigger time for everyone else’s priorities than the holidays!”

Continue reading “My video interview with Connie Jorsvik: The “Patient Pathways” workshop” →

“Can’t go to my support group meeting because my husband’s expecting dinner”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

screen-shot-2016-11-09-at-1-45-37-pmI opened an email recently from one of my Mayo heart sisters. She had dropped me a note because she was concerned about a woman (a recent heart attack survivor) who had told her she really wanted to attend their community’s next support group meeting for women living with heart disease (this one was a monthly meeting held from 3-4:30 p.m.). But this woman claimed that she couldn’t go to the meeting – because she “had to be home to cook dinner for her husband.” Although her hubby was retired and at home all day long, the heart attack survivor explained that “he expects to have dinner ready at the regular time that I have had it for him all the years he was working.”

My initial reaction (after checking the calendar just to make sure it’s not still 1950): I need to go have a wee lie-down to recuperate from reading this story. Continue reading ““Can’t go to my support group meeting because my husband’s expecting dinner”” →

Are you a priority in your own life?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 23 Comments

red shoes collage

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Five months after surviving a misdiagnosed “widow maker” heart attack, I attended the WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium for Women With Heart Disease at Mayo Clinic.  Cardiologist Dr. Sharonne Hayes (founder of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic) told us about a study on women’s life priorities called Hierarchy of Female Concerns that asked its female participants this one question:

“What is most important to you?”

Now, when I do presentations about women’s heart health, I like to ask my audiences to guess in advance the correct order of this study’s top six answers, just for fun.

These rankings are surprising, in an amusing-yet-oddly-pathetic way.  The order of our reported priorities may also help to explain why, even when women are experiencing dangerous cardiac symptoms, they are significantly more likely than our male counterparts to delay seeking treatment if something ‘more important’ crops up.

‘More important?‘ What could possibly be more important when you’re having a heart attack? Check out the terrific 3-minute Elizabeth Banks film “Just a Little Heart Attack” for a brilliant example of this classic  treatment-seeking delay behaviour.

And then see if this list of women’s reported priorities matches the answers that you might give, too: keep reading…