Strategies to Meet the Urgent Need for Connection in Health Care.

Abstract

To the Editor: As the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing divisions steeped in racism and social injustice have dramatically illustrated, humanism and collaboration among health care professionals are essential to high-quality health care. Yet, there remains a divide between the ideal of caring for people with compassion—which calls individuals to health care—and the realities of systemic and structural health inequities, which negatively impact the delivery of high-quality patient care and the creation of supportive work environments. 1,2 The Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science have been identifying strategies to address this gap. They partnered to offer 2 live 20-minute webinars in 2020 to support humanism and teamwork among health care professionals and leverage the power of intentional and authentic connection. In the first webinar, participants were introduced to the Alda Center’s Alda Method through a self-reflective improvisational exercise that asked each individual to inventory facets of their identity and then participate in a discussion that analyzed some of what had emerged. The discussion focused on the synergy between humanism and empathetic communication. The second webinar built upon the first and introduced participants to The Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Tell Me More communication tool, a set of prompts to elicit details that go beyond a patient’s diagnosis or a health care team member’s role. Participants were guided to articulate personal strengths and multiple ways others perceive them to illustrate how sharing personal interests becomes a pathway for empathy and humanism in health care interactions. After each webinar, participants were asked to complete a web-based anonymous evaluation to assess the webinar’s impact and the potential utility of both tools in health care practice. A total of 165 persons joined the first webinar, 75 joined the second, and 25% of the participants completed the postwebinar evaluations. Participants encompassed several professional domains, including clinicians; medical and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics scientists; communications specialists; and theater professionals. This audience diversity meant that participants were likely seeing a variety of different strategies from the webinars. Several participants expressed interest in greater emphasis on tools to communicate challenging topics with colleagues, patients, and families. Almost 70% of survey respondents agreed that the webinar content would be valuable in their work. The Alda Method focuses on widening one’s capability to connect with others. Complementing it, the Tell Me More tool provides a framework that opens an opportunity for connection. The Gold Foundation and the Alda Center will be developing a combined strategy, using these 2 approaches, to support humanism and teamwork among health care professionals and will then determine the short-term and long-term impact on individual and organizational outcomes. We see tremendous potential for positive transformation by leveraging these approaches together and encourage all to join us in this endeavor to ensure humanism is central to health care.