“…during times of stress, we need to be reminded of the positive aspects of our life, especially our strengths and resources. This can serve as a short-term buffer against feelings of vulnerability and helplessness that so often accompany medical illness and treatment.” —Bruce Rybaraczyk, PhD

Listening to patients’ life narratives has a been demonstrated to have a significant impact on indices associated with stress and the ability to cope with life threatening illnesses or procedures. In our research we have been able to demonstrate that individuals telling stories about coping with previous adversity are more likely to develop self-efficacy when coping with a current health challenge.

A Program That Requires Little Time from Frontline Staff

LivingStories depends on skilled volunteers who are trained to be narrative interviewers. Benefits of the program include:

1. LivingStories interviews lead to substantial reductions in the anxiety that patients commonly experience when facing an invasive medical procedure.
2. LivingStories interviews are equally as effective as relaxation techniques and interventions such as diaphragmatic breathing and group support.
3. When an interview focuses on past experiences of successful coping, it leads to a positive change in the patient’s appraisal of his or her coping abilities and resources. Previous research has demonstrated that such changes in self-appraisal play an important role in behavioral outcomes.
4. Participating patients give the hospital higher quality ratings, demonstrating greater satisfaction, thus perceiving that the hospital as a whole provides better service.

Expect Improvements in Patient Satisfaction 

Hospitals can anticipate that LivingStories will have the collateral benefit of improving the hospital’s HCAHPS scores, an important goal in the race to maximize reimbursements. In addition, LivingStories provides your hospital a distinctive edge in a competitive marketplace.

Simple to Implement

• A cohesive package of training and consulting services that have been piloted and now being implemented at Novant Health, now making it possible for your hospital and your patients to benefit from this important research into the use of life narrative interviewing.
• A comprehensive training program to prepare your volunteers, including a suite of over 50 training videos to support the training of your volunteer interviewers.
• A comprehensive curricula and support materials.
• A volunteer training curricula including all support materials that can be custom branded for your institution.
• All volunteers who successfully complete the training receive a certification of completion from StoryWork International.
• A suite of consulting and support services to assist you in the implementation of the program, including tested approaches to creating a robust volunteer recruitment program.
• Marketing materials that can be customized and branded for use internally with patients, and can be customized for use in your market to promote the program.
• Certification as a “LivingStories” Hospital.