Stories of Value in the Whisper Room

Sometimes they don’t seem like real people with real problems and real feelings. They are incredibly bright and creative people. They work tremendously long hours and deal with whatever walks in the door. You trust them with your lives and they share in some of your most intimate moments. To many they are heroes. They are physicians and over the past two summers they have told their “Stories of Value” in the whisper room at the Digital Union to medical students.

“Stories of Value” is the name of a project sponsored by the Professionalism Council at the Medical Center. Each summer students participated in a course where they learned how to interview, record in the whisper room, edit their recording, and ultimately put together a collection of stories around a professionalism theme. The stories have been shared at faculty and staff meetings, at national meetings, and even during the 5 minutes of Fame portion of Innovate! (listen to all the Stories of Value at http://streaming.osu.edu/podcast/medcol661sp10/podcast.xml).

The real power is in the stories told by these heroes, who are trained to communicate in precise clinical terms. They shared about the heroism of their patients, who in the face of death sought to serve others. They talked about getting a hug when they really needed it and how much a heartfelt thank you from a patient means. They talked about times when they were patients and how much it means to them to be a part of a team that improves people’s lives.

The students add their own voices. You can hear those professional values being passed on to a new generation of doctors, and that they get it.  These students know they will have to be next heroes and that they may have to take care of you or someone you love.

How would you use digital storytelling and resources like the whisper room at the Digital Union to help your students learn in new perhaps more meaningful ways?

– Larry Hurtubise is a Instructional Technology Liaison in the College of Medicine.