Surgical Storytelling: A Novel Initiative to Characterize Narrative-Based Medicine Practices in Surgical Practice
Matthew Kelly, PhD, MPH, Connie Cai, BA, Kara-Grace Leventhal, MD, Katherine Chretien, MD
Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Narrative-based medicine offers the potential to catalyze the humanization of medical practice and medical education by connecting with and utilizing the narratives patients embrace to navigate, describe and understand their illness experience. While narrative-based medicine has received considerable attention as a tool for humanizing medicine, the role that it plays in surgery remains critically unexamined. Every year, thousands of surgical procedures are performed under local anesthesia and, during these procedures, surgeons and patients engage in acts of narrative-based medicine and shared storytelling.
The team, composed of Johns Hopkins clinicians and medical trainees, seeks to address this gap in our understanding of an important clinical practice by examining the content and structure of narrative-based storytelling and conversation conducted between surgeons and patients in the setting of Mohs surgical procedures conducted under local anesthesia.
This novel initiative involves four phases: (i) research characterizing the structure, style, and impact of Surgical Storytelling methodologies using audio recordings of the surgeries and patient interviews along with the administration of the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire, (ii) the development of initial reflections and recommendations for Surgical Storytelling practice, (iii) focus group discussions of recommendations with surgeons and clinical trainees, and (iv) the drafting and dissemination of findings from phases (i), (ii), and (iii).