Researchers in the field of health have been emphasizing the concept of mental and spiritual health along with physical health as an indicator and component of health and hygiene for many years. In such a way, mental and spiritual health positively affects physical health and accelerates the healing process.

Every event that happens in human life, whether bitter or sweet, contains experiences and lessons that, if learned correctly, can be helpful in the critical moments ahead.

Suffering from the illness of oneself or one's relatives is one of these events. Unfortunately, I also joined many patients with the lesser-known coronavirus. The severity of the disease was so great that I had to be hospitalized for some time.

What I realized from the beginning of the fight with this disease until the fair recovery and health was the importance and necessity of strengthening the psychological and spiritual dimension and strengthening the physical strength.

In fact, rather than weakening the human physical powers, the disease, due to the virus's direct and indirect mechanisms, attacks the human emotional and mental strengths and makes it weaker and weaker.

Therefore, maintaining hope for the future and vitality and trusting and believing in the metaphysical has a two-way effect on healing. On the one hand, it mentally makes the disease easier to bear, and on the other hand, it helps the body and the body's defense forces in the face of the virus.

Accordingly, psychologists and counselors' presence alongside physicians and nurses in the treatment of patients helps patients fight the disease.

Before I got this disease, I was probably less aware of the importance of counselors' and psychologists' presence - those who enhance patients' mental health - in treating this disease.

As a personal experience, the days of hospitalization, the presence of a psychologist in the room, and his one-by-one talks with patients gave a unique variety to the treatment process. He calmly began to talk with coronavirus patients and listened keenly to their words and concerns.

On the other hand, for those who were unwilling to accept the new conditions of the disease and this temporary lifestyle, he first revealed the truth and made them accept these conditions. And in the next step, with motivational and hopeful sentences, he prepared them to fight this disease and hope for a bright future.

He came to us, and it was our turn. We started talking; Maybe for more than half an hour. These direct conversations, albeit brief ones, helped to better understand the situation and deal with the disease.

Boosting immunity by Story-telling

One of the highlights of this counselor's approach was the use of stories and memories he witnessed during the nine months of counseling at the Corona Hospital and ICU. In fact, he knowingly or unknowingly used the same story-telling technique used in knowledge management. These true stories cause the patient to identify with the person whose great spirit story and his or her dominance over the disease being told.

Perhaps the experience will save the life of a patient!

Other notable points in the counselor's work style were the sympathy and questioning of patients who had gone through the difficult stages of the disease, were on the verge of recovery, and experienced the last days of their hospitalization.

Perhaps, he would no longer have the opportunity to talk to these people, and he would make the most of this opportunity for the remaining few days, asking about their experiences during treatment until they recovered.

He would ask

- What experience did they have during their illness?

- And what do they say to someone who has just contracted the disease?

And would record the patient's experiences.

He also asked the patients who were recovering completely to think about these questions. In his next visit, he repeated the same questions and wrote down the result of the patient's thought and intellectual conflict with the question.

His critical phrase to attract and persuade patients was:

"These tips and your experiences may be able to save another dear life."

Manage knowledge without taking the name of knowledge management!

At the end of our conversation, I thanked him and shared the concept of "knowledge management" with him. I explained that what he is doing is exactly in line with this concept of knowledge management.

This consultant may have been unfamiliar with "knowledge management" until then, but what he was doing and applying in practice was pursuing the concept of knowledge management and applying its tools and techniques, without naming knowledge management.

This is where we always remember the words of knowledge management experts who, in implementing knowledge management in life, home, workplace, and organization, emphasize on. First of all, promoting and consolidating the culture of knowledge management and paying attention to the principle of profitability of knowledge management on a micro and macro scale.

Illuminate the future path with the light of the past

Once we come to believe that "the past is a beacon for the future" (i.e., knowledge management), we set foot on the path, and step by step - with the help of experienced knowledge management consultants - the way becomes smoother and more transparent. As the famous Iranian poet Attar of Nishapur[1] says:

You stroll in the path of the goal and do not hesitate

The road itself tells you how, whence, and in which direction to go

Purpose of writing this text

1- Transferring the experience of dealing with the coronavirus; A virus has plagued the world for more than a year.

2- Gratitude to the hospital's medical staff, especially the less mentioned group of counselors and psychologists.

3- Experience in paying attention to knowledge management and using its techniques in treating coronavirus patients, referring to the method of one of the hospital psychologists.

4- Paying attention to the necessity of prioritizing belief and trust in the effectiveness of knowledge management in making individual and professional activities more productive.

Be healthy and fresh!

~~~

Author: Hamid Abbasi

https://www.linkedin.com/in/seyyed-hamid-abbasi-a68b6496/

Email: s.hrabbasi91@gmail.com