What Do You Want Us to Know?: Learning From Life Stories to Improve Veterans’ Healthcare Experiences

M, Rosén; Nguyen, Breanna A.; Khetarpal, Susheel K.; Sgro, Gaetan

doi:10.1177/23743735211069833

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The medicalized environment in which stories were recorded may also serve to have Veterans emphasize particularly traumatic or life‐threatening medical experiences. This research builds on recent work that identified key themes in 17 Veteran MLMS narratives, including early hardships, facing mortality, and recounting harrowing combat experiences 27 . Although many Veterans may have opted not to disclose such experiences, it appears that a large number do wish for their medical team to know about their experiences confronting past adversity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…This research builds on recent work that identified key themes in 17 Veteran MLMS narratives, including early hardships, facing mortality, and recounting harrowing combat experiences. 27 Although many Veterans may have opted not to disclose such experiences, it appears that a large number do wish for their medical team to know F I G U R E 1 Fifteen most potentially traumatic events, adverse childhood experiences and additional life challenges found in Veteran narratives containing a disclosure about their experiences confronting past adversity. This finding calls on clinicians to become more competent in responding to trauma disclosures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Traumatic disclosures in the life stories of older Vietnam era veterans

Sager

Nathan

Doherty

et al. 2022

J American Geriatrics Society

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Background Eliciting life stories is an important component of person‐centered care that may aid in understanding how an individual's unique background and narrative impacts their health. Such life stories, especially when gathered from older military Veterans, may include traumatic events, raising the urgency that clinicians be prepared to provide care that is trauma‐informed and ensure Veteran's experiences are acknowledged and treated effectively. Methods We examined the prevalence and type of potentially traumatic and/or adverse life events spontaneously shared by 231 older Veterans participating in a life story intervention while receiving care within the U.S. Veterans Health Administration system. Veteran life stories were extracted from the electronic medical record and deductive qualitative content analysis was used to code potentially traumatic or adverse life experiences based on a codebook adapted from the Brief Trauma Questionnaire and Adverse Childhood Experience questionnaire. Results A majority (71.0%) of Veterans described at least one traumatic disclosure in their life story. Among narratives with a disclosure of any type, more than half (53.0%) included descriptions of combat trauma, 21.5% noted a history of life‐threatening illness, and 9.5% reported having been in a serious accident. Fewer noted adverse childhood experiences (19.5%). Conclusions Elicitation of life stories among older Veterans may advance person‐centered care and life stories frequently include disclosure of potentially traumatic and/or adverse life events. These findings underscore the normative experience of traumatic events among older Veterans and highlight the importance of developing age‐sensitive trauma‐informed care competencies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%