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

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 (R) (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.