Using Life Stories to Connect Veterans and Providers

Program Feedback

The original interviewer/writer team members (2.5 full-time employee equivalent for 6 months) generated 182 stories. The corresponding My Story notes in the CPRS were cosigned to an average of 3.3 providers. The program received both formal (solicited) feedback and informal (unsolicited) feedback from veterans and providers.

After gathering the first 80 stories, the team solicited participant satisfaction data from interviewed veterans, using a 5-point Likert-type scale. Veteran reaction was positive (Figure 1). The team polled VA providers with an online anonymous survey, using the same Likert-type scale to see whether the story and PHI were useful to providers in their clinical practice. The results suggested they were (Figure 2).

Perhaps the most enlightening and touching feedback were the following unsolicited e-mails and comments:

Recent developments at the WSMMVH suggest that veteran stories are becoming an accepted component of clinical care. The heart/lung transplant team requested that the My Story note be part of the transplant workup process for all new patients. The team also found that new HCPs who were assigned to a veteran regularly cosign that veteran’s My Story note to other providers on the care team. In addition, My Story referrals come from all types of HCPs and staff, both within the hospital and at primary care clinics. 

Recent Developments

Two WSMMVH employees suggested using volunteers to gather stories and became the first volunteers: One was a housekeeper who had served in the U.S. Army during the Gulf War, and the other was a registered nurse; both had writing experience.

In 2014, staff trained 12 volunteers from the local community who have been trained to interview and write stories. The volunteers have varied professional backgrounds. All have a background and interest in writing or experience working in a health care setting; 2 are veterans. These volunteers are adding to the team at no additional cost. In development is a standardized training program and a method to look at story collection and writing fidelity, which will allow for further expansion of this program.

My Life, My Story continues to expand significantly. A total of 610 veterans have been interviewed, and 348 of these interviews were conducted by volunteers. The project now has 18 active volunteers with 4 more on a waiting list. A pilot has been launched at a WSMMVH outpatient clinic, which interviews VA primary care providers about their life stories and shares them with their veteran patients. There is now collaboration with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison to offer a 2-week My Story elective to fourth-year medical students in spring 2016. In March 2015, My Life, My Story expanded to 6 pilot facilities across the VA: Asheville, North Carolina; Bronx, New York; Iowa City, Iowa; Reno, Nevada; Topeka, Kansas; and White River Junction, Vermont.

Future Projects