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 They’re creating Word Clouds - and they say the practice is valuable
for them, too, because it helps them forge their own bonds with
patients.
Staff members in the ICU of St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton,
Ontario say the process is an economical way to alleviate a
stressful time. They have incorporated Word Cloud creation into
regular practice and recently studied its impact.
“It was surprisingly meaningful,” said Dr. Meredith Vanstone, an
assistant professor of family medicine at McMaster University. She
and her colleagues interviewed 37 relatives and 73 healthcare
providers of 42 dying patients who were Word Cloud subjects.
The Word Clouds, generated through the website wordle.net, are
graphic representations of descriptions of patients, not just by
loved ones but also by the healthcare professionals caring for them.
They're "a form of art - a 'Picture of Words,'" according to
Vanstone and her colleagues.
Word Clouds are “a catalyst for telling stories,” Vanstone told
Reuters Health. “It’s a way to get families away from thinking about
negative things going on.”
The distillation of stories promotes attention to the patient as a
whole person, she said, reflecting a life’s entirety during a time
when many focus on the details of the final days.
One Word Cloud, for example, contained roughly 50 descriptors
(hardworking, best-uncle-ever, Bob-Dylan, fishing and union-man),
with the phrases arranged around the patient’s name.
Writing in BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, the authors share a
comment about the process from a patient’s daughter: “. . . it was
more of a family bonding in time of need . . . it’s nice to talk
about something that brings a smile on your face.”
For clinicians in the ICU, which is a stressful place to work, “Word
Clouds provide the opportunity to create human connection,” said
study coauthor France Clarke, also of McMaster University. “They
reinvigorate the passion that brought (providers) to this career and
do some healing to the people who are around.”
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The project hinges on the practice of narrative medicine, a care
model in which clinicians elicit patient’s stories and recognize
their common humanity. Narrative medicine, which aims to benefit
patients and doctors, was pioneered by Dr. Rita Charon at Columbia
University College of Physician and Surgeons in New York City.
Charon, who was not involved in this project, calls it “beautiful.”
Forging authentic connections among clinicians, patients and
families is one of narrative medicine’s highest aims, and one Charon
says the eliciting of stories for the graphic facilitates this kind
of connection.
Providers “get to know the bravery, the reluctance to give up, the
eagerness with which they hear footsteps of a visitor,” Charon told
Reuters Health.
Seeing the image of the Word Cloud was also healing, the study
found. Some family members reported looking at them regularly to
feel closer to loved ones after their death. “Having it is a chance
to reflect and remember,” Vanstone said.
“It makes a community among those who are usually pretty separated,
the family on one side and the doctors and nurses on the other side
who only meet when there is bad news to be had,” Charon said. “This
is one small example of a much larger mission: to let it be known
that physicians care so deeply for what happens to their patients
and to learn that that matters.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2iA7sne BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care,
online November 24, 2016.
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