Bedside stories

'Bedside Stories' is a medical story telling event for doctors and health care professionals. It is produced in association with the dotMD conference . 

Why Stories?

Stories are therapeutic

Doctors tell stories to one another whenever they gather. Telling stories helps them make sense of their own working lives, and by sharing those stories with others, helps them make sense of theirs.

Stories act as antidotes

Whereas the emphasis on evidence based practice, outcomes, and technology has resulted in significant improvements in medicine, there is a sense among many, that as a result, the narrative richness of medicine is being lost. We believe strongly that stories may help provide the narrative glue that helps make sense of the medicines’ complexities and uncertainties. We also believe that an emphasis on stories may help maintain a sense of humanity and on what is important in healthcare. 

Story telling helps foster a sense of community

The increasing sub-specialisation of medicine has also resulted in fragmentation of the medical workforce, and contributed to the increasing sense of isolation that many practitioners feel. We hope that the bringing together of a group of health care professionals from across of a number of disciplines will develop a strong community based around story telling and help reduce some of that sense of isolation.

Our aims.

1. To organise a series of events that entertain and educate our audience
2. To develop the art of story telling (and story listening) among health care professionals 
3. To use the sharing of stories to help reduce feelings of isolation and burnout among healthcare professionals 
4. To build a community of story tellers and listeners.