Stories help liberate our kindness and compassion

Many moons ago I was once a Franciscan friar, which is something like a monk. During these years, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to study theology and spend time as a hospital and prison chaplain, as well as teach in schools and work with disadvantaged youth. It is because of the people that I was ‘walking with’ that I am the person that I am today.

There are so many stories that I still tell about my experiences. Stories are the way that we connect with others. It is part of our DNA and something we’ve been doing since caveman times. When someone tells a story, there is a neurological connection for us – it’s like we are experiencing the story ourselves.

And so it is with patient stories. Such stories allow staff to ‘see through the eyes of patients’. There is a lot measurement in the area of patient experience, and a growing set of metrics. But as Don Berwick would say, ‘the meaning is not always in the metric’. What is enormously helpful to staff are not so much the collection of data, but the hearing (or reading) of stories.

And I think there is something else that is working here…..stories help liberate our kindness and compassion. You only have to look at some of these examples to see why this is the case. https://www.patientopinion.org.au/services/dpt_eh_3128#/?tab=1

Another thing to consider is why would patients want to share their stories? In a sense, they are donating their story to us, and hope that we treat it with care and understanding. I think the reason that they do share stories with us is that healthcare operates in a unique space – a sacred space if you like. Whilst there are some similarities, healthcare is different from hotels and restaurants. Healthcare is more interactional than transactional as described here https://www.patientopinion.org.au/blogposts/12/the-sacred-space-of-care

Healthcare is also unique because we work on ‘the edge of the human predicament’. A good friend of mine who passed away six years ago describes this better than I can. Dr Kieran Sweeney was a GP and medical philosopher and talks about his experience of being diagnosed with cancer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--uMNY55nw4 It’s a 6min clip and his story is really worth watching.

We need to hear the patient stories – their joy and their pain. These stories will liberate our kindness and compassion, and at some point we might even realise that what we have done for them is little compared to what they bring to us.