Multiple Perspectives: Stories in Medicine
Digital storytelling has emerged as a potent tool within healthcare, allowing both patients and providers to share and learn from each other's experiences. In our recent Co-Created episode featuring Claudia Gore, an NHS doctor with a unique journey through her own medical challenges, we delve into the transformative power that stories possess. Claudia's experiences spotlight how becoming a patient reshapes a clinician's perspectives. Especially in an environment like healthcare, where emotions can often get buried under the weight of clinical duties, storytelling introduces a refreshing and endemic element—one that recognizes the human behind the statistics and diagnoses.
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Claudia recounts her personal journey into storytelling, sparked by a simple invitation to a workshop, which she initially approached with skepticism. This resistance to acknowledging her own story is not uncommon; many people feel they have nothing to share or that their experiences lack significance. Yet, as Claudia learned during her workshop in 2016, every experience can provide valuable insights when framed through the lens of a narrative. The workshop allowed her to unleash a creative side that had been stifled, integrating her profession with a newfound form of expression.
Claudia’s personal stories related to staff as patient:
Over the years, Claudia has crafted multiple stories, each serving as a testament to her experiences as both a healthcare provider and a patient navigating significant health challenges. From moments of vulnerability during the pandemic to addressing serious medical incidents within her practice, these digital stories shed light on the often unseen emotional toll that healthcare work demands. By sharing these narratives, Claudia not only advocates for a culture of open communication within healthcare but also facilitates critical conversations that can enhance training and education for her peers.
More of Claudia’s Personal Stories
Patient Safety: Pieces
Culture & Language: Factory Settings
One of her notable stories, "Pieces," which revolves around a tragic incident in her practice, has been instrumental in educating teams on the impacts of trauma and the importance of supportive debriefing. This highlights how storytelling transcends personal expression, acting instead as a catalyst for organizational change and improved outcomes in patient care. By using stories, healthcare providers can bridge gaps in understanding and sensitivity about various experiences, especially those that are challenging or painful to discuss.
Episode 34 Key Messages
Transformative experiences as a patient
Importance of digital storytelling for empowerment
The impact of telling difficult stories on teams
How storytelling can bridge understanding between patients and providers
Engaging teens and parents in telling their health stories
The role of lived experiences in educational resources
The episode also emphasizes the importance of young voices in storytelling, such as Claudia's work in creating a dual storytelling space for adolescents with allergic conditions. By having both young people and their parents tell their stories separately but concurrently, profound insights emerged. These stories not only provided catharsis but also enriched communication between family members who previously may not have understood each other's struggles.
Have a look at the digital stories created in workshop with teens and their families.
By recognizing the clinical and personal spheres of healthcare as interconnected, the episode with Claudia Gore provides a compelling call to action. It urges healthcare providers to embrace storytelling as a vital avenue for connection, empathy, and education. As we reflect on our own narratives, we can appreciate how these insights can transform how we view healthcare delivery, prioritizing the voices of those we serve. As such, this episode serves as a poignant reminder—to unlock the true potential of healthcare, we must first listen to the stories that lie within it.
About our Guest
Claudia Gore is a consultant in paediatric allergy and lead for the adolescent allergy service at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London..
Clinically, she has specific expertise in caring for children and young people with complex multi-system allergic disease and severe eczema and in providing as well as expanding services for allergic adolescents..
Claudia is the Paediatric Chair of the BSACI Adolescent and Young Adult Committee and an active contributor to the EAACI Adolescent Taskforce – all aimed at improving healthcare transition for adolescents and young adults with allergic conditions..
These activities support the improvement of care for adolescents and young adults with allergic and other conditions through innovative ways of engaging patients, families, educators, health and care staff.
This conversation was recorded about the episode titled “Empowering Youth Through Storytelling" with Rebecca Saah. This episode was released in October of 2024.
About Co-Created
Co-Created is a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of digital storytelling. On each episode, host Kristy Wolfe dives into conversations with the storytellers and facilitators who bring digital stories to life.
If this particular conversation resonated with you, tell a friend or a colleague about Co-Created or share one of the digital stories we were talking about. You can find the stories here.
Co-Created is presented by Common Language DST, digital storytelling facilitation training for health and wellness changemakers and is supported by the team at Snack Labs.
