What is Oral History?
"Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events."--www.oralhistory.org
Oral history was first described in the late 1940s as a way the process used to capture significant people and stories. Today, this generally translates into the "historian" using a recording device, such as digital recorders, to capture testimonies that will be collected, analyzed, and archived. Rather than conducting a typical question-and-answer interview, the oral historian should begin with a broad question, let the interviewee guide the process, and ask follow-up questions only when needed. This produces a more open structure where the interviewee has complete control of the conversation, which provides a more comprehensive understanding of beliefs and events.
Oral history was first described in the late 1940s as a way the process used to capture significant people and stories. Today, this generally translates into the "historian" using a recording device, such as digital recorders, to capture testimonies that will be collected, analyzed, and archived. Rather than conducting a typical question-and-answer interview, the oral historian should begin with a broad question, let the interviewee guide the process, and ask follow-up questions only when needed. This produces a more open structure where the interviewee has complete control of the conversation, which provides a more comprehensive understanding of beliefs and events.
Oral History and Health: An Introduction
by Michael Kline
Oral history beings with an invitation to tell about your life, your people, and the place you live in your own way, to line out your own experience and knowledge. The health provider listens without interruption, recording your spoken memories and observations so that you can listen back to them and have a record of your own thought and ideas. The clinic keeps confidential copies of recordings made in the this way for a similar record of your life and health. This approach is changing the way many clinics and health providers hear from people about the larger picture of their surroundings and family history. Rather than the usual question and answer interview aimed at "getting information," which often feels more like interrogation, the new approach of "listening for a change" gets beyond mere information into meanings, beliefs and understandings at the heart of the illness. This produces a more open structure where patients are invited to choose the direction of their telling in how they conduct their own life story, The critical illness takes on new dimensions and clarity as a result of the telling--and the listening.
How is Oral History Used in Health Care?
Integrated into what is known as narrative medicine, oral history has been explored in both healthcare research and as a patient communication tool. The following includes examples regarding how oral history has been useful in health care:
Patient-Centered Care and Oral History
Patient-centered care has become a prominent talking point within healthcare teaching institutions. Many hospitals and clinics are trying to find ways to transition clinicians’ thought processes and thus transform individualized care. A recent study found that patients often fear having open discussions with their providers as they may be thought of as difficult, or experience decreased quality of care in retribution. While another investigation discussed how even well educated patients felt too limited by time constraints and were too intimidated to ask the questions they wanted answered. In order for patients to feel like a partner in their own medical care, providers must find ways to nurture this relationship. Research indicates that utilizing oral histories may improve a patient’s involvement in care as well as comprehension of disease management. Using oral histories with providers will provide documentation of progress, as well as an opportunity to verbalize perceptions.
- Nurses have used this technique to document their history as a profession
- Physicians have found oral history education improve medical student communication and empathy
- Pharmacists partnered with communication major students to provide interdisciplinary learning opportunities
- Social workers were able to identify stressors and resilience themes in rural older women through oral history
- A pediatric pain clinic identified the inner workings of pediatric chronic pain as well as areas for clinician improvement through oral history
Patient-Centered Care and Oral History
Patient-centered care has become a prominent talking point within healthcare teaching institutions. Many hospitals and clinics are trying to find ways to transition clinicians’ thought processes and thus transform individualized care. A recent study found that patients often fear having open discussions with their providers as they may be thought of as difficult, or experience decreased quality of care in retribution. While another investigation discussed how even well educated patients felt too limited by time constraints and were too intimidated to ask the questions they wanted answered. In order for patients to feel like a partner in their own medical care, providers must find ways to nurture this relationship. Research indicates that utilizing oral histories may improve a patient’s involvement in care as well as comprehension of disease management. Using oral histories with providers will provide documentation of progress, as well as an opportunity to verbalize perceptions.
What are the Benefits?
- Provides a deeper understanding of the illness experience
- Increases provider/interviewer empathy, reducing burnout
- Helps identify provider/interviewer biases
- Empowers interviewees gain control over their health and better endure illness
- Gives insight into trends of thoughts/feelings/coping strategies of a specific population
- Identifies areas for system-level quality improvement
- Provides a model for future research
Next: Learn about the role of health coaches