In this project, five podcast episodes were developed featuring Overvecht residents and a professional sharing their experiences and life stories. The team integrated these episodes into the medical education curriculum to provide medical students with narratives that often remain untold in the consultation room. The team believes these stories are essential for fostering a deeper understanding of the social contexts that influence the daily lives and health of people living in challenging circumstances.

Background

Understanding social factors influencing health(care) is crucial in public health education for medical students. To achieve this, the team used CEL, such as internships with community organizations and community tours introducing students to social organizations in Overvecht, professionals, volunteers, and residents.

These brief encounters involve people with significant life stories. However, due to the community setting, the experiences are unpredictable and varied. To better prepare students, a podcast series was created featuring these stories.

The project aims to:

• Develop educational material based on narrative medicine to prepare students for community-based learning.
• Strengthen the link between theoretical education and practical experience.
• Provide experiential learning spaces where students can understand the everyday lives of people outside their ‘bubble’.

What happened

For this project, the team interviewed people from their expert-by-experience’s (ervaringsdeskundige) network in Overvecht, having them share their own chosen stories and advice for medical students. The interviews were transformed into four individual episodes and one compilation episode by interviewers (CS and EMN from the Dept. of Public Health) and an HKU student skilled in storytelling and podcast producing.

Medical students explored how to integrate the podcast into the curriculum and organized a small launch party with interviewees and project staff to celebrate and share the podcast with Overvecht residents.

Results

Podcast

A podcast series was developed , “Verhalen uit de Wijk,” consisting of four episodes featuring deeply personal life stories for educational use, and one compilation episode for sharing in other settings.

Education and students

The tea, piloted the episodes with medical students, and their responses varied. Some students recognized the importance of these stories, gaining insight into their own privileges. Others needed more guidance to avoid a purely biomedical perspective and instead listen with a more social and open mindset.

Taking these aspects into account, the team implemented the podcast in regular medical education in the following three contexts:

1. Introducing students to patient experience stories (bachelor’s level).
2. Using the podcast to illustrate social determinants of health (bachelor’s/master’s level).
3. Preparing students for community tours led by our expert-by-experience (bachelor’s/master’s level).

Overvecht residents

The team hosted a small launch party at community center De Boog in Overvecht. They set up a ‘listening corner’ where visitors could access the podcast via QR code and were invited to share their own stories or life lessons in a notebook.

Tips and lessons learned

The goal was to encourage people from Overvecht to share their stories and understand what matters to them. This can be challenging if approached too broadly, and not everyone thrives in an interview setting, even informal ones. In future projects, it’s important to make conversations more engaging and concrete, such as by doing activities together with the interviewee or framing discussions around a chosen theme (in consultation with the contributor).

Medical students typically listen to patients with a diagnostic focus. These podcast stories, however, require empathetic listening, considering social aspects and perspective-taking, which many find challenging. Educational design should account for this by tailoring implementation, assignments, and questions accordingly.

Reciprocity in CEL can be challenging. However, contributors to our podcast shared their episodes with caregivers, who then shared them with colleagues. This creates a unique form of reciprocity, giving interviewees their stories back in a shareable, pride-inducing format.

To effectively share personal stories in education, it is crucial to find a right balance between allowing individuals to tell their own stories and creating an environment where these stories can truly shine. Dedicate sufficient time to integrate these stories into actual education, ensuring they are fully appreciated and leave a lasting impact.

The Podcast

Listen to one of the podcasts here: