Tell Me More As A Tool for Provider Connectedness With Hospitalized Patients: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

Rates of burnout and compassion fatigue in healthcare professionals have remained high since the beginning of the pandemic with adverse implications for patient care. Tell Me More ® (TMM) is a tool licensed by the Gold Foundation, which was created with the purpose of helping patients, caregivers, and hospital staff to connect with each other on a humanistic level. Research has shown the benefits of the TMM with students and anecdotally with patients. This mixed-method study, which consisted of surveys and semistructured interviews with healthcare professionals (n = 72), sought out to understand the impact of implementation of TMM on a hospital floor. Surveys were distributed before and after the occurrence of TMM with interviews only occurring afterward. Three out of 8 survey items were found to be significant. Content analysis from interviews generated 4 themes from participants which included “Connectedness to Patient,” “Separation of Person and Illness,” “Communication with Patient's Support Network,” and “Connectedness with Non-Verbal Patients.” TMM is a useful tool for strengthening provider–patient relationships in hospital settings and may therefore lessen compassion fatigue and burnout.