Show Notes:
In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Susy Stirling, a Public Health Physician and Associate Dean based in Yorkshire & Humber, and Dr. Sandy Miles, a GP and Medical Educator in Devon, both from the United Kingdom.
Dr. Susy Stirling MBChB, MSc, MPH, DCH, FFPH trained in medicine and after early career jobs in hospital medicine in the NHS, worked as a General Medical Officer in rural South Africa for 2 years. She returned to the UK to train in Public Health and was previously Lead for Migrant, Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health across the Yorkshire & Humber region. Susy became interested in organizational development and medical education after observing the impact of successive NHS reorganizations on staff as well as patients. She was previously Training Program Director for Public Health and is currently one of the Y&H Associate Deans. In this role she provides oversight of the Future Leaders Program, a multi-disciplinary leadership fellowship scheme. Susy set up and runs the Y&H Coaching Scheme, having trained as a coach and seen at first-hand how powerful the impact of protected thinking time away from the coalface can be on workplace effectiveness, engagement and wellbeing. She is interested in supporting healthcare professionals to find connection, hope and motivation at all stages of their careers and recently founded ‘National Health Stories’ – live storytelling events in the style of The Moth to further these aims.
Dr. Sandy Miles is a GP and Medical Educator in Devon. Alongside her clinical role as a GP, she works in Postgraduate GP training, was Clinical Director of Eastleigh Primary Care Network and, together with Dr. Sam Powell, established popular retreats for doctors. Following an MSc Medical Humanities at King’s College, London she published on shame in medicine and the role it plays in the formation of the medical identity. She speaks with doctors and other healthcare professionals exploring how to understand & minimize the causes and effects of shame and perfectionism in healthcare settings. In 2024 she worked with Dr. Susy Stirling to establish National Health Stories to provide a live platform for healthcare workers to tell their stories on the theme of ‘Hope and Humanity’. She has recently been appointed to the editorial advisory board of the BMJ Medical Humanities Journal. In the conversation, Dr. Miles and Dr. Stirling share their journeys from early medical careers through personal challenges and discoveries that led them to focus on supporting healthcare professionals through storytelling, coaching, and addressing shame in medical practice.
We also cover:
- How personal experiences with inequality, family history, and burnout shaped their paths toward supporting healthcare professionals
- The transformative power of medical humanities education and its impact on professional identity
- Their collaboration on the National Health Stories experience, creating platforms for healthcare workers to share narratives of hope and humanity
- Understanding shame as a compass that can guide healthcare professionals toward their core values and self-development
- The critical importance of listening to understand rather than listening to reply in all healthcare interactions
Dr. Miles and Dr. Stirling conclude by envisioning a future healthcare system where listening is prioritized over speaking, emotional literacy is cultivated from medical school onwards, and healthcare professionals are trained to truly hear patient stories rather than just gather medical data.