Thor Ringler's guest appearances

Thor Ringler

GeriPal

The Life Story Coach

John Jantsch

Rebecca Wilson

Mark Bowden

Patricia Hamilton

Erika Ettin

Rachel Brenke

Janet Bieschke

Maureen Taylor

Sarah White

Derek Lewis

Rutger Bruining

Susan Nathan

Candus Kampfer

Donna Strickland

Jenny Doan

OwlTail

Heather Coats

Eric and I weren’t sure what to call this podcast  - storytelling and medicine? Narrative medicine?  We discussed it with today’s guests Heather Coats, palliative care NP-scientist, and Thor Ringler, poet.  It wasn’t until the end that the best term emerged - storycatching.  Because that really is what this is about.  Clinicians “catching” patient life stories.    What’s in a story?  Well, as we learned, everything.  Our patients aren’t “the 76 year old with heart failure in room 202,” as Heather Coats astutely noted.  They’re people, and what makes us people if not our life’s stories?  Our loves, our triumphs, our failures, our work, our families.   Thor Ringler helped start the My Life My Story project at the Madison VA in Wisconsin.  It’s since spread to over 70 VAs.  VA “gets” the importance of storytelling in medicine, without the need for reams of research to back it up.  As Thor notes, capturing patient stories has face validity as positively impacting the patients who share their stories and have them documented, and for the clinicians who get to truely and deeply know their patients in far greater depth than “what brought you to the hospital?” Heather Coats is hard at work establishing the evidence base for the power of capturing patient stories in healthcare settings, for those health systems that need a little more convincing.    Wonderful work.  Enjoy!  Many links: VA Presents: My Life, My Story: George: A Voice To Be Heard on Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1529359511?i=1000489683280 Every Veteran has a story. Our mission is to help them tell it.https://www.va.gov/wholehealth/mylifemystory/ My Life, My Story: VA’s healthcare improvements through deliberate storytelling - YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpzgVlExS20&amp;ab_channel=VeteransHealthAdministration Storytelling Helps Hospital Staff Discover The Person Within The Patienthttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/06/08/729351842/storytelling-helps-hospital-staff-discover-the-person-within-the-patient  A few data based publication links from Person-Centered Narrative Intervention Program of Research:  Unpacking characteristics of spirituality through the lens of persons of colour living with serious illness: The need for nurse-based education to increase understanding of the spiritual dimension in healthcarehttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jocn.16055 Integration of Person-Centered Narratives Into the Electronic Health Record: Study Protocolhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32740306/ Bennett, C.R., Shive, N., Coats, H. (2020). What Mattered Then, Now, and Always: Illness Narratives From Persons of Color. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, 22 (5):392-400/ PMID: 32740304https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32740304/ Coats, H., Meek, P., Schilling, L., Akard, T., Doorenbos, A. (2020). Connection -- The Integration of a Person-Centered Narrative Intervention into the Electronic Health Record: An implementation study. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 23 (6)  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7249456/ Coats, H., Crist, J., Berger, A., Sternberg, E., &amp; Rosenfeld, A. (2015). African American elders’ serious illness experiences: Narratives of “God did,” “God will,” and “Life is better.” Qualitative Health Research. doi:10.1177/1049732315620153.  PMID: 26701962https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1049732315620153.   Narrative Methods Textbook referenced in podcastNarrative Methods for the Human Sciences  A few Dignity Therapy- Harvey Max Chochinov links https://dignityincare.ca/en/about-us.html About us - Dignity in Carehttps://dignityincare.ca/en/about-us.html Research Team - Dignity in Carehttps://dignityincare.ca/en/research-team.html Other links: Curiosity by Faith Fitgeraldhttps://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/0003-4819-130-1-199901050-00015 Eric’s blog post on Dignity Therapy from 2011https://geripal.org/study-of-dignity-therapy-on-distress/

Eric and I weren’t sure what to call this podcast  - storytelling and medicine? Narrative medicine?  We discussed it with today’s guests Heather Coats, palliative care NP-scientist, and Thor Ringler, poet.  It wasn’t until the end that the best term emerged - storycatching.  Because that really is what this is about.  Clinicians “catching” patient life stories.    What’s in a story?  Well, as we learned, everything.  Our patients aren’t “the 76 year old with heart failure in room 202,” as Heather Coats astutely noted.  They’re people, and what makes us people if not our life’s stories?  Our loves, our triumphs, our failures, our work, our families.   Thor Ringler helped start the My Life My Story project at the Madison VA in Wisconsin.  It’s since spread to over 70 VAs.  VA “gets” the importance of storytelling in medicine, without the need for reams of research to back it up.  As Thor notes, capturing patient stories has face validity as positively impacting the patients who share their stories and have them documented, and for the clinicians who get to truely and deeply know their patients in far greater depth than “what brought you to the hospital?” Heather Coats is hard at work establishing the evidence base for the power of capturing patient stories in healthcare settings, for those health systems that need a little more convincing.    Wonderful work.  Enjoy! Many links: VA Presents: My Life, My Story: George: A Voice To Be Heard on Apple Podcasts<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1529359511?i=1000489683280__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BhdMUcql$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1529359511?i=1000489683280</a> Every Veteran has a story. Our mission is to help them tell it.<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.va.gov/wholehealth/mylifemystory/__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BuUO2CdE$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.va.gov/wholehealth/mylifemystory/</a> My Life, My Story: VA’s healthcare improvements through deliberate storytelling - YouTube<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpzgVlExS20&amp;ab_channel=VeteransHealthAdministration__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BmhPaLZZ$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpzgVlExS20&amp;ab_channel=VeteransHealthAdministration</a> Storytelling Helps Hospital Staff Discover The Person Within The Patient<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/06/08/729351842/storytelling-helps-hospital-staff-discover-the-person-within-the-patient__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BrkiYrI7$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/06/08/729351842/storytelling-helps-hospital-staff-discover-the-person-within-the-patient</a> A few data based publication links from Person-Centered Narrative Intervention Program of Research:  Unpacking characteristics of spirituality through the lens of persons of colour living with serious illness: The need for nurse-based education to increase understanding of the spiritual dimension in healthcare<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jocn.16055" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jocn.16055</a> Integration of Person-Centered Narratives Into the Electronic Health Record: Study Protocol<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32740306/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32740306/</a> Bennett, C.R., Shive, N., Coats, H. (2020). What Mattered Then, Now, and Always: Illness Narratives From Persons of Color. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, 22 (5):392-400/ PMID: 32740304<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32740304/__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BrUCQuQ6$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32740304/</a> Coats, H., Meek, P., Schilling, L., Akard, T., Doorenbos, A. (2020). Connection -- The Integration of a Person-Centered Narrative Intervention into the Electronic Health Record: An implementation study. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 23 (6) <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7249456/__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BjBzdGya$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7249456/</a> Coats, H., Crist, J., Berger, A., Sternberg, E., &amp; Rosenfeld, A. (2015). African American elders’ serious illness experiences: Narratives of “God did,” “God will,” and “Life is better.” Qualitative Health Research. doi:10.1177/1049732315620153.  PMID: 26701962<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1049732315620153__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BjUsqYRk$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1049732315620153</a>.  Narrative Methods Textbook referenced in podcast<a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/narrative-methods-for-the-human-sciences/book226139#:~:text=Truths%20and%20Cautions-,Narrative%20Methods%20for%20the%20Human%20Sciences%20provides%20an%20accessible%20framework,confidence%2C%20empathy%2C%20and%20humility.&amp;text=This%20offers%20useful%20material%20for,process%20of%20doing%20narrative%20interviews" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences</a> A few Dignity Therapy- Harvey Max Chochinov links <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://dignityincare.ca/en/about-us.html__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BrSof9A9$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://dignityincare.ca/en/about-us.html</a> About us - Dignity in Care<a href="https://dignityincare.ca/en/about-us.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://dignityincare.ca/en/about-us.html</a> Research Team - Dignity in Care<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://dignityincare.ca/en/research-team.html__;!!LQC6Cpwp!oBd-0nmWchD80ME3pznxu6d7rGVQ12sr93FBqEw2oT3cGo24PsCSbNLUCzkEmgAIwKGaZMH2rNW-Fmlq0zoDaJLzmYU9BiC55En8$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://dignityincare.ca/en/research-team.html</a> Other links: Curiosity by Faith Fitgerald<a href="https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/0003-4819-130-1-199901050-00015" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/0003-4819-130-1-199901050-00015</a> Eric’s blog post on Dignity Therapy from 2011<a href="https://geripal.org/study-of-dignity-therapy-on-distress/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://geripal.org/study-of-dignity-therapy-on-distress/</a>

Storycatching: Podcast with Heather Coats and Thor Ringler

Saving veterans' stories, one patient at a time Dr. Susan Nathan, physician at the Boston VA, and Thor Ringler, therapist and poet in Madison, Wisconsin, talk about their experience with My Life, My Story. The VA program offers veterans the opportunity to record their life story—not only for posterity, but for their medical chart as well. Thor is the overall program director of My Life, My Story and an avid collector of patients' life stories. He was brought on board after two psychiatrists, Dr. Eileen Ahearn and Dr. Dean Krahn, recognized the need to promote greater understanding of the patients among the team of people caring for them. That led to the revolutionary idea of including 1,000 word narratives, told in the patient's voice, in the medical chart. In addition, each patient receives hard copies of the edited story to take home. Links &amp; Stuff Want to volunteer for My Life, My Story? If you're in Boston, contact Dr. Susan Nathan. Anywhere else, email Thor Ringler. Want to learn more about narrative medicine? Check out these books by Dr. Rita Charon: The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness

Saving veterans' stories, one patient at a time Dr. Susan Nathan, physician at the Boston VA, and Thor Ringler, therapist and poet in Madison, Wisconsin, talk about their experience with My Life, My Story. The VA program offers veterans the opportunity to record their life story—not only for posterity, but for their medical chart as well. Thor is the overall program director of My Life, My Story and an avid collector of patients' life stories. He was brought on board after two psychiatrists, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/doctors-are-taught-early-about-patient-histories-is-it-time-for-different-questions/2018/04/27/145deeb8-4251-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.7d7c97334ad0" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Dr. Eileen Ahearn and Dr. Dean Krahn</a>, recognized the need to promote greater understanding of the patients among the team of people caring for them. That led to the revolutionary idea of including 1,000 word narratives, told in the patient's voice, in the medical chart. In addition, each patient receives hard copies of the edited story to take home. Links &amp; Stuff Want to volunteer for My Life, My Story? If you're in Boston, contact <a href="mailto:Susan.Nathan@va.gov" rel="noopener">Dr. Susan Nathan</a>. Anywhere else, email <a href="mailto:Thor.Ringler@va.gov" rel="noopener">Thor Ringler</a>. Want to learn more about narrative medicine? Check out these books by Dr. Rita Charon: <a href="http://The%20Principles%20and%20Practice%20of%20Narrative%20Medicine" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine</a> <a href="https://amzn.to/2DaSezx" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness</a>

38: My Life My Story with Dr. Susan Nathan and Thor Ringler