Recorded presentation

Lois McCloskey, DrPH, MPH, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street Ste T528W, Boston, MA 02140, 617-638-5882, loism@bu.edu, Zeev Neuwirth, MD, Tufts University School of Medicine, 567 Tremont Street #12A, Boston, MA 02118, Marjorie Zohn, BA, Dramatic Insight: Bringing Together the Worlds of theatre, the Arts and Therapy, 6 Rosemary Street #3L, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, Maria Pinheiro, MA, The Wake Up! Company, 80 Mansfield Street, Framingham, MA 01702, and Ronald Goldman, EdD, Dramatic Insight: Bringing Together the Worlds of Theatre, the Arts, and Therapy, 1514 Beacon Street, #307, Brookline, MA 02446.

Research on the relational aspects of health care has produced ample evidence that the quality of communication and partnership between clinicians and patients has an impact on satisfaction, adherence to advice, utilization, malpractice risk, and health outcomes. This project aims to: 1) increase ob-gyn physicians' and nurse-midwives' capacity for shared decision-making and respectful, compassionate communication with women of diverse personal histories, racial, cultural, and class backgrounds, and 2) increase women’s confidence and skills to engage with their providers in ways that promote respect and empower them as partners in their health care. To achieve these goals, we are developing, implementing, and evaluating a series of workshops for women and their health care providers. The methods used in the workshops derive from traditions in participatory and improvisational theatre, such as Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Participants are invited to “enter the scenes”, re-enact and transform them, to use them as rehearsals for everyday dramas in medical encounters. The material for the workshops is derived from “real life” narratives, which we collect through in depth interviews. In addition, we analyze the interview texts, using techniques of narrative analyses to elaborate themes that characterize the most satisfying and most challenging medical encounters from the perspective of women patients, physicians, and midwives. In this paper we present results of these analyses, demonstrate workshop content, and report on the project evaluation. Narrative analyses and participatory theatre methods are valuable tools for empowerment education in community settings and continuing education in medical settings.

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate the importance of effective communication between women and their health care providers for patient satisfaction, adherence to advice, safety, and health outcomes.
• Identify key issues that facilitate and hinder respectful, empathic communication between women and their health care providers, as reported in their own narratives.
• Apply the methods of narrative analyses and participatory theatre in the design of community and medical education programs to promote respectful, compassionate communication between women from low-income communities and their health care providers.

Keywords: Community Participation, Communication

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Boston University--School of Public Health and School of Medicine Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, Inc.
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation