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Harnessing Patient Life Stories to Engage Medical Trainees in Strengthening Veteran-Provider Relationships

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Abstract

Introduction

Medical trainees do not have many opportunities to develop communication skills with patients. We established the voluntary “My Life, My Story” (MLMS) program at the Clement J. Zablocki VAMC in Milwaukee, WI, to determine if this pilot narrative medicine program enhanced trainee interpersonal skills and improved patient-centered care.

Methods

Trainees at the Medical College of Wisconsin conducted in-person or virtual interviews of Veterans receiving care at the Milwaukee VAMC about their meaningful life experiences. Post-interview, trainees wrote a short first-person narrative in the Veteran’s voice, which, after the Veteran’s approval, was added to the electronic medical record and made available to the patient’s care team. Trainees, Veterans, and health professionals completed post-interview surveys, from which we conducted descriptive statistics and qualitatively analyzed the text-based feedback.

Results

Between 2020 and 2021, 24 medical trainees participated in our pilot implementation of the MLMS program, conducting a total of 32 interviews. All trainees reported a meaningful personal impact and found the pilot to be “valuable” and “rewarding.” Both trainees and health professionals believed that the MLMS program improved “rapport building” with Veterans. Nearly all Veterans (n = 25, 93%) believed that their medical care team would be able to provide better care after reading their life story.

Conclusions

Narrative medicine initiatives like the MLMS program may enable value-added education for trainees. Future research will allow us to better understand and maximize specific educational gains, while further enhancing patient care.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Adina Kalet, MD, Lana Minshew, PhD, Jeff Fritz, PhD, MS, MATL, Jessica Olson, PhD, MPH, and Nitish Thareja, MS, for their review of this manuscript. We are grateful to the Veterans and healthcare health professionals of the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, WI, for their participation and feedback. We also thank the volunteers from the Milwaukee VAMC and MCW for their support.

Funding

This work was supported by the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, and Psychology at the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Milwaukee, WI, USA). S.K.T. is a member of the Medical Scientist Training Program at MCW, which is partially supported by a training grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, T32-GM080202.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Suma K. Thareja, Justin Laridaen, Isabella Puls, Michael McBride & Bertrand Berger

  2. Davidson College, Davidson, NC, USA

    Catherine O’Connor

  3. William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI, USA

    Seth Jovaag & Thor Ringler

  4. Clement J. Zablocki Milwaukee VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Michael McBride & Bertrand Berger

Authors
  1. Suma K. Thareja
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  2. Justin Laridaen
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  4. Catherine O’Connor
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  6. Thor Ringler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suma K. Thareja.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

An administrative review by the Research Office at the Clement J. Zablocki VAMC in Milwaukee, WI, occurred and determined that the MLMS program did not meet the definition of research. MLMS is an approved operations activity at the Milwaukee VAMC. All survey feedback was obtained in an anonymous format. Program activities were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Thareja, S.K., Laridaen, J., Puls, I. et al. Harnessing Patient Life Stories to Engage Medical Trainees in Strengthening Veteran-Provider Relationships. Med.Sci.Educ. 33, 1155–1163 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-023-01854-4

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