WVU doctor highlights personal stories of healthcare workers through Healthcare is Human project
Healthcare is Human, an independent project launched by Ryan McCarthy, M.D., is emphasizing the ‘care’ in healthcare by highlighting the stories of healthcare workers through narrative medicine.
Dr. McCarthy, an associate professor for the Department of Medicine on the West Virginia University School of Medicine’s Eastern Campus, said he first got the idea for Healthcare is Human during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“When the pandemic first began, I knew I was going to be experiencing a momentous, once-in-a-century event,” McCarthy said. “As an educator, I felt compelled to document those experiences so they wouldn’t be lost to history and so I could use what I learned to help my medical students in the future.”
McCarthy said he began journaling his experiences of working in a hospital during the pandemic and talking with his coworkers about their experiences. Before long, he partnered with a local photographer and a friend of his who was a radio producer to add visual elements to these stories and help him record the conversations he was having with others.
With the team assembled McCarthy said the Healthcare is Human project was officially underway. Together the team began finding local healthcare workers to interview and tell their own stories of working in healthcare during the pandemic, with an emphasis on narrative medicine.
“Narrative medicine is a discipline of medicine that focuses on understanding the well-being of both the patient and the caregiver,” McCarthy explained. “In a sense, it’s what this entire project is built around – learning about what makes healthcare human.”
McCarthy and his team continued to interview an array of healthcare workers in the local area, producing articles that were then published on local news sites. He explained that these pieces focused on everyone involved with healthcare – not just doctors and nurses, and instead told the stories of the ‘unsung healthcare heroes’ such as custodial workers, logistics workers and facilities personnel.
One piece told the story of Jamal White, a custodial worker at Berkeley Medical Center, while another article featured hospice worker Lillian Amanaka, telling the story of her experiences working during the pandemic.
McCarthy also launched the official Healthcare is Human Podcast in September 2020, which similar to the articles, features the personal story of a different healthcare worker in each episode. McCarthy said that listening to these unique and personal stories and sharing them with others gave him the drive he needed to keep going as the pandemic continued to rage on.
“Any person working in this field knows the simple truth that healthcare is hard,” McCarthy explained. “But projects like this which highlight the real, human stories of healthcare workers nurture our own humanity. These stories remind me why I decided to pursue medicine in the first place and give me the energy to continue working and putting forth my best to help my patients and my community.”
Now in its third year of operation, McCarthy said the Healthcare is Human project is still going strong and continuing to help share the stories of healthcare workers in West Virginia. McCarthy recently shared the stories of 12 local healthcare workers while speaking at TEDx WVU, in April, where he also touched on the importance of implementing narrative medicine.
“When you can make a real connection with someone, whether they are a patient or a fellow healthcare worker, and understand their own narrative and where they come from, it opens up so many doors for you as a caregiver,” McCarthy said. “That is something I try hard to instill upon my students.”
McCarthy said he is collaborating with colleagues to establish a narrative medicine elective for fourth-year medical students at the School of Medicine. He is also partnering with Renée Nicholson, the director of the WVU Humanities Center, to create a narrative medicine graduate certificate for students. The certificate, which McCarty said will be the first of its kind in the region, will be based on Appalachian values and rural healthcare.
To learn more about the Healthcare is Human project, visit the Facebook page.