How the Care Companion Program Began
By Anand Kumar, Director of Training
Anand has made it his life’s mission to take the Care Companion Program to every corner of India. It was his work that inspired our model several years ago, and we are forever grateful for his support and guidance in making impact on-ground a reality.
In my previous role as an ICU nurse at Narayana Health in Bangalore, most patients didn’t understand what to expect from surgery, beyond what they’d seen in the movies. The typical cardiac surgery lasts between 4 to 5 hours, and when patients gain consciousness from the anesthesia, they have a breathing tube, IVs, monitors beeping around them, and they cannot tell if it’s day or night. This confusion can lead them to pull out their breathing tubes, chest tube, or cause other major damage.
After seeing this repeatedly, our surgical team decided to adopt a small orientation program that details what the ICU looks like, what happens during and after the procedure, and what their responsibilities are as a patient.
I volunteered to take on this orientation after my regular ICU shifts, borrowed a TV from the hospital with a DVD player, and took it from ward to ward, gathering patients who were scheduled for surgery the next day, along with their families.
The conversation helped eliminate fears about the process and reassured them that their family would be nearby. Patients learned that they may not be able to speak upon waking up because of the breathing tube, that they wouldn’t be allowed water until it was removed, and that the nurses were there to support them.
Slowly, ICU patient cooperation rose, and when the nurse repeated what the patient had been told, they would give a thumbs up and trust that they were being cared for. The hospital mandated the orientation for all surgical patients, seeing its effectiveness in cardiac care. I was taken out of the ICU and charged to deliver the training all around the hospital, in Hindi, Kannada, and incorporating phrases from local languages like Tamil to 25–30 people per session.
A simple human connection to alleviate fear and worry about the unknown was the starting place of the next phase of my career.
During one of these sessions, I met Edith, Shahed, Jessie, and Katie, now founders of Noora Health, who were Stanford students at the time. They saw the impact of the training and how much of a difference putting humans at the center of care made to health outcomes. They returned to the U.S. to finish their studies and I continued to consult with them as they built a program model and structured curriculum around this big idea. Soon, I got a call from Shahed, who asked if I would support Noora Health in taking things forward.
At the time, I had just accepted a nursing job in a central government hospital, a dream job to so many who had entered my profession. However, I had seen the power of this model and had a soft spot for the work. Even as an introvert, I was leading sessions in front of hundreds of people every week! As I considered devoting all of my time to helping Noora Health, I sought the advice of my family. My parents said, “Why would you resign from a job that people work years to get?” My cousins said, “Who would do this?” And when I spoke with a mentor, he said, “In life, there will always be opportunities that come with risk, but sometimes those risks can be fruitful for a lifetime. Noora is a start-up, which means you have the chance to know the model inside and out and understand the nitty gritties of enabling change at scale.”
Thus, I undertook one of the biggest risks of my professional life, and have never looked back since. We never thought the Care Companion Program could bring about the deep impact it has achieved in a short amount of time. My goal is to share the knowledge and skills of health education I have gained over a decade, with my fellow healthcare workers. And to reflect Noora Health’s mission to train patients and their families with high-impact health skills to improve outcomes and save lives, through these healthcare workers in their daily work.
Dr. Devi Shetty, the Chairman of Narayana Health, believed in the Care Companion Program in the early days and summarized Noora’s work perfectly. He said that a nurse or doctor might know everything about medicine, but the person who knows the patient best and will provide the best care in the long-term is their family member. I am proud to be playing a part in the mission to set a new standard of care that puts families at the heart of it all.
