We have a reason to celebrate!
Our podcast series “10 Minutes to Better Patient Communication” has been around for three full years! This is our 83rd episode and we have more than 40,000 downloads. You go ahead and do the math.
It’s a reason to party!
And to mark the occasion: we have a new look.
Because it’s a party, I loosen up and freestyle this episode. You’ll hear me talk about our past, present and future. Listen here, or read the transcript below.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
It’s the third anniversary of “10 Minutes to Better Patient Communication” podcast series, and we’re celebrating! This episode is a celebration of our past, our present, and where we’re heading. These days, we’re all so stressed, it’s important to grab joy wherever we can, and celebrate whenever we can. So that’s what we’re going to do now.
This is 10 Minutes to Better Patient Communication from Health Communication Partners and I’m Dr. Anne Marie Liebel. You might be surprised, maybe, at how many hours it takes to make a 10 Minute Podcast episode. So today I’m going to take some of the pressure off myself and just kind of talk to you. I have a list of, like, bullet points so I don’t go off the rails. But let me tell you a little bit about the show.
But first I want to say thank you! Right, thank you to the people who are listening who are new. Thank you for the people who’ve been with us from the start. It’s not only our third anniversary, which is pretty mega, but earlier this year our download rate doubled and it’s stayed there. So now we’re at more than 40,000 downloads, which is also pretty major because this show pretty much lives by word of mouth. So thank you so much!
You might know my background’s in language, literacy, and education and I take what are called critical social approaches to these issues. And most of my life I’ve been in the education sector, but I gradually started to do work in the health sector, and now I’m pretty much just in the health sector.
For me, it started with patient physician communication, you know–hence the name of the series. But over time it’s it’s expanded for me. So I deal with health literacy and digital health literacy, patient education, health communication, and professional learning and mentoring. And if you’ve heard across the series, you know I do episodes on all of these things.
This series started when I was, several years ago, when I was doing presentations at conferences. And someone came up to me afterward and said, “We need what you’ve got. Get it out there as quickly as possible.” And that kind of rocked around in my head. I was like, what does that mean, as quickly as possible? So I, I talked to my brother, who is a voice talent and and he also plays music on the side, and I was like, “Wanna learn how to podcast?” And fortunately, he said yes, pretty much because it sounded like fun. And it is fun. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of work, but it is fun.
But I also like what the podcast modality lets me do in terms of the tone. Because what we’re dealing with, they’re really heavy issues. There’s nothing more serious than the kinds of issues that, that you are dealing with as professionals on a day-to-day basis. So I think it’s important to keep a hopeful tone and a positive tone. And for me as an educator that’s something that’s been important for a long time: for us to be able to focus on the part that we can do something about.
And there’s always a part that we can do something about, right. There’s always a way for us to exercise our agency. Maybe it’s out in the world, maybe it’s in ourselves, and probably both. So one of the big events for us this year was the redo of the Addressing Implicit Bias Audiobook Bundle. And that is a way for you to grasp your agency.
I didn’t come up with the idea of focusing on words and phrases and discourses as a, as a means for change on an individual and structural level. But that is what this is about, and it’s concrete things you can do. Because I mean, really, your words are some of the only things in this world that you actually have control over. So this helps you grasp control over your own words and phrases.
But it also gives you ways to work on a systems level. And it’s a download, a digital download right now on healthcommunicationpartners.com. When you buy it, you own it, it’s yours, you keep it forever. And if you’re an educator, there are deeply discounted class sets. And there are also discounted institutional bundles. And the class sets and institutional bundles come with the instructors guide that I made for you. Because it’s one thing to look at your own biases in your own words and phrases. It’s another thing to help other people look at theirs. So there’s a whole other layer of support that I built in to the class sets and institutional bundles. (Contact me for info.)
So other things that have been happening lately, I just had an article on contact tracing go out in the Journal of Communication in Healthcare, and it’s open access. I’ll put a link in the show notes. I also got asked if I would be interested in writing a journal article about the series, which I loved doing! And that’s going to come out soon, so I’ll let you know when that’s out. I also have another article about health literacy coming out, and I’ll let you know of course when that comes out. This is all happening really soon.
So where are we going with the show? What’s ahead for year 4? You know that I don’t, like, come up with the topics for the show: I get them from you. People write with questions and problems, I hear them in the various conversations that I’m a part of and groups that I’m a part of. Sometimes things come up on social media. So here’s what I’ve been hearing that you can count on showing up in an episode or two (or more) in year 4:
- So obviously, health disparities and health equity are completely mainstream now, so we’re going to keep parking it there.
- Questioning assumptions is happening all over the place and I am here for it. Let’s question some assumptions in how we educate. Let’s question some assumptions (or continue questioning assumptions) in our terminology.
- Speaking of educating, I’ve seen more questions that have to do with group education. So I’m going to dig into that this year.
- Overall, a need for different tools and approaches. Maybe it’s how we’re examining like our current systems, and maybe it’s how we want to build what comes next. So I’m going to talk more about that this year.
- Trust has been a huge topic, so I’m going to go into trust a little bit more explicitly than I have in the past.
- Also power. Power relationships, people’s power. That’s important to me, and I’m glad to see it kind of popping up in more conversations.
- And I’m also going to keep it parked on reflective practice, which continues to be one of the topics I get asked about the most.
Now more and more people are openly talking about these topics, but here in the show we’ve been doing it since day one. And the research that I draw on in the show is built on generations of people before me, who have also been doing this work. And many of them are marginalized and minoritized people who have been trying to draw issues like the ones I just mentioned to our collective attention for decades–or centuries.
So let’s see…what else is coming? There’s more questions. I’m going to be asking, I think, some tougher questions of you and of myself. I’m going to challenge you. I’m gonna challenge me, right?
The Effective Patient Education bundle is getting a redo, so buy it now before the price goes up. Because once I redo it, the price is going to go up. That’s on Health Communication Partners, as well.
I’ve told you before about the reflective practice course. Yes it’s happening, I’m still building it! It’s an introduction and an overview to reflective practice. But it’s also going to give you some things you want to keep in mind and watch out for if you are teaching others, and you’re trying to encourage others to engage in reflective practice. So if this is something that you’re interested in and there’s a topic you would really like to see me address in the course, go ahead and write me. I’m at AnneMarie at H-cpartners.com also on Twitter and Linked.
So I have two fun, exciting announcements to close this up with:
- One is that we have our first sponsor! Yes! I’m so excited about this. These are people that we already have a great working relationship with, and stay tuned. I can’t wait to tell you who it is.
- And we are also getting a new graphic for the series! And I’m on it. It’s taken me three years to come out from behind the microphone, so now you’re going to see my face!
Speaking of being visible, if you’d like me to speak virtually at your organization, again write me, hit me up on Linked or on Twitter.
Thank you. Thank you for being with us these three years. Thank you for downloading and sharing. You’re trying to help people live longer, and live happier, and live healthier, and you’re using language and education to do that. So I am a fan of yours. This has been 10 minutes to Better Patient Communication from Health Communication Partners. I’m Dr. Anne Marie Liebel.
