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Narrative Humility: Sayantani DasGupta at TEDxSLC

TEDx Talks・15 minutes read

Narrative humility is crucial in healthcare, emphasizing the need to truly listen to patients' stories, which is often overlooked in modern medicine. The speaker advocates for teaching listening skills to healthcare professionals through narratives for better patient care and cost-effectiveness.

Insights

  • Narrative humility, as explained by Santani Dasgupta, emphasizes the importance of deeply listening to patients' stories, especially in healthcare settings where technological skills often overshadow this fundamental human need.
  • The shift towards narrative competence and away from cultural competence in healthcare education, focusing on self-awareness and openness to diverse narratives, underscores the transformative power of teaching listening through storytelling practices for better patient care and overall cost-effectiveness.

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Recent questions

  • Why is narrative humility important in healthcare?

    Narrative humility in healthcare is crucial because it emphasizes the significance of truly listening to patients' stories. By listening deeply and being truly attended to, healthcare professionals can better understand their patients' experiences, needs, and perspectives. This approach is especially vital in moments of illness, crisis, and trauma, where patients often require not just medical treatment but also emotional support and understanding. By practicing narrative humility, healthcare providers can improve patient care, enhance communication, and ultimately contribute to better health outcomes.

  • How does narrative humility benefit patient care?

    Narrative humility benefits patient care by fostering a deeper connection between healthcare providers and patients. By listening to patients' stories and being open to unexpected narratives, healthcare professionals can gain valuable insights into their patients' lives, beliefs, and experiences. This understanding allows for more personalized and compassionate care, leading to improved patient satisfaction and outcomes. Additionally, practicing narrative humility can help healthcare providers avoid miscommunications, assumptions, and biases that may arise when patients' stories are not fully heard and understood.

  • What is the role of listening in modern medicine?

    In modern medicine, the role of listening has been overshadowed by the emphasis on technological skills. However, listening is a fundamental aspect of patient care that should not be overlooked. By listening to patients' stories, healthcare providers can gain a more holistic understanding of their patients' health concerns, needs, and preferences. This can lead to more accurate diagnoses, tailored treatment plans, and improved patient outcomes. Listening also plays a crucial role in building trust, fostering communication, and enhancing the patient-provider relationship, all of which are essential for effective healthcare delivery.

  • How can healthcare professionals improve their listening skills?

    Healthcare professionals can improve their listening skills by practicing narrative humility and cultural humility. This involves being open to patients' stories, experiences, and perspectives, and approaching each interaction with empathy, curiosity, and respect. Healthcare providers can also benefit from training in narrative competence, which involves teaching them how to listen deeply, ask open-ended questions, and engage with patients in a meaningful way. By honing their listening skills, healthcare professionals can enhance their ability to connect with patients, provide personalized care, and ultimately improve the quality of healthcare delivery.

  • Why is narrative competence important in medical education?

    Narrative competence is important in medical education because it equips future healthcare professionals with the skills they need to listen to patients' stories, understand their experiences, and provide compassionate care. By teaching narrative competence, medical educators can help students develop the ability to engage with patients on a deeper level, communicate effectively, and build trusting relationships. This can lead to better patient outcomes, increased patient satisfaction, and a more humanistic approach to healthcare. Additionally, narrative competence can help healthcare professionals navigate the complexities of cultural diversity, address social determinants of health, and deliver patient-centered care that is responsive to individual needs and preferences.

Related videos

Summary

00:00

Narrative Humility: Transforming Healthcare Through Listening

  • The speaker, Santani Dasgupta, introduces the concept of narrative humility as a philosophy of listening.
  • Listening deeply and being truly attended to is a fundamental human need, especially in moments of illness, crisis, and trauma.
  • In modern medicine, the emphasis on technological skills has overshadowed the importance of listening to patients' stories.
  • The speaker, as a medical Humanities educator, teaches health care professionals how to listen to stories at Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence College.
  • The cultural crisis of story and listening is highlighted, with the mention of losing higher-order listening functions due to information overload.
  • The importance of being open to stories and unexpected narratives in medicine is emphasized for better patient care and cost-effectiveness.
  • An anecdote is shared about a miscommunication with a patient due to assumptions, stressing the significance of truly listening in medical practice.
  • The speaker criticizes the lack of emphasis on listening skills in medical education, mentioning the culture of hierarchy and the need for narrative competence.
  • The concept of cultural humility is introduced as an alternative to cultural competence, focusing on self-awareness and openness to narratives.
  • Teaching listening, through reading and writing stories, oral histories, and witnessing narratives, is described as a powerful and transformative practice in healthcare.

17:06

"Narrative humility in health care"

  • Health care should be practiced with narrative humility, connecting the will to know with the will to become.
  • Listening is crucial in creating a space where Paradise can be achieved.
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