Tracy Granzyk tells stories

Tracy Granzyk, a key member of the Telluride Patient Safety Camp faculty, has published an ebook called Using Stories to Influence Change in Healthcare: Lessons From the Frontlines of Educate the Young. Look for it here.

She notes:

As long as there are patients who fall victim to preventable harm in healthcare, there are healthcare professionals who also have a story rich in learning material from the other side of the bedrail. Both sides of the patient harm story will need to be embraced by healthcare leadership in order to achieve the delivery of reliable, high-quality, safe care everyone desires. Because the numbers harmed by healthcare have at the very best plateaued, an urgent need to pick up the pace for change remains. Sharing the stories of patients and healthcare professionals on a larger and more strategic scale throughout the industry will allow others to learn vicariously from mistakes as well as successes, building upon the positive momentum found when utilizing storytelling as a medium for change. Our stories can provide the guiding light leading us into a new world for healthcare—where the patient voice is welcomed, and healthcare professionals are allowed to speak their truth.

Our healthcare stories also serve many masters. When patients share their story of illness, they heal. When families tell stories of loss, they grieve. When healthcare professionals relate stories of guilt or near misses, they unburden their souls and can fix what is broken in health systems, enabling them to once again care for others as intended. Freedom to tell our story has always been a way to health and happiness.

It is a terrific compendium. Tips from expert storytellers on how to craft good stories, as well as a glimpse into the science of story, round out this collection.