Four Steps to Let Vulnerability Change the Healthcare Game

PM360

April 10, 2017

By Kate Shaughnessy

https://www.pm360online.com/four-steps-to-let-vulnerability-change-the-healthcare-game/

Summary

If you’ve ever conducted patient engagement programs, you know that the core ingredient of the secret sauce is to help patients and caregivers overcome their apprehension against making themselves vulnerable. It can be scary! We usually consider our vulnerable side private. Most of us have built up a lifetime of walls around us, having been taught that we shouldn’t always just talk about ourselves, and that perceived weakness can be exploited. There are four catalysts for vulnerability, which can be used to create a safe context in which people are more readily prepared to open up: Respect, confidentiality, gratitude, and reciprocity. So when someone does take a leap of faith and entrusts us with their innermost demons, they know those demons won’t come back to haunt them.