Episode 8 - What is a "Culture of Acceptance"

In this must-watch podcast episode, Nicole Purnell, MoMMA's Voices Program Director, speaks about something we all need to hear - having a culture of acceptance. As someone who has experience in quality improvement projects, Nicole stresses the importance of listening and being open to those with lived experience. She reminds us that when people feel accepted and valued, great things can happen. So take a few moments to listen to this powerful message and let it inspire you to create a more accepting and inclusive world.

About MoMMA's Voices
MoMMA’s (Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Advocates) Voices is the first-ever maternal health patient advocacy coalition established in 2018, to amplify the voices of people who have experienced childbirth complications or loss - especially those who have been historically marginalized - ensuring they are equipped and activated as partners with providers and researchers to improve maternal health outcomes.

This is a program of the Preeclampsia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is supported by a grant through Merck for Mothers. For more information, visit mommasvoices.org and preeclampsia.org.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hi, I'm Nicole Purnell, theprogram director for Mama's
Voices.
In today's episode of the PowerMama's Voices podcast, I'm
coming to you at you completelydifferent.
Usually our podcasts are donejust audio and not done as a
video.
And today I am coming to youlive from my office.
I wanted to talk with you allabout something that comes up

(00:22):
quite often we teach on it allthe time.
We use it as a disclaimer beforewe start any presentation when
we're talking with patients.
And it's something that had beenasked about recently, several
times people looking for aresource.
So I wanted to put somethingtogether for you all that then
you can use as well.
So what is it this thing that weget asked about so often, we
really, really talk about?

(00:43):
It is a culture of acceptance.
And I cannot take full creditfor this.
Some of this came through workwe did with another
organization, but I wanted to beable to bring this to you and,
and talk about this today andwhat does this mean and why is
it so important in the work thatwe do.
So we always do again, always dothis in our presentations that

(01:05):
we do we try to, if we'remoderating it, is to, to give
this as somewhat of a disclaimerbefore patients are sharing
their stories and you'll seewhy.
So this is us leading by examplein our practices is to create
this culture of acceptance.
And what this means can meanmany different things.
So for starters, we wanna saythat we acknowledge and we

(01:28):
respect those of you with higherdegrees, but we do not use
honorifics in our groups.
We want everyone to feel thatthey have.
And a space to speak up.
So we do not use doctor, we donot use those honorifics in our
groups.
And it's not for lack ofrespect, but we just want
everybody to have thatopportunity and feel comfortable

(01:49):
and confident and to shift thepower dynamic a bit so we can
have open conversations.
The next thing that is includedin our culture of acceptance is
when we talk about patientsharing.
So when a patient is sharing astory, when they're sharing
their story, when you'relistening to this, sometimes you
might hear something that isn'tmedically accurate or that

(02:13):
doesn't happen in our facility.
That's not how it.
These are red flags.
Lots of red flags here, and thatis okay.
I wanna encourage you not to getdefensive, not to not to get,
not to raise your hand, not tocorrect that patient.
Take a moment to curb that urge.

(02:35):
These are moments to learn from.
These are where there's gaps incommunication, and you can use
these to apply them to your ownwork and see, this is how
there's such communication gapsbetween providers and patients
and where information is lost.
Learn from those experiences.
Don't be offended by them.
Thank you for listening to thatpart.

(02:55):
Another way that we can talkabout and encourage a culture of
acceptance is through talkingabout evidence.
So oftentimes there areorganizations, especially
community-based organizationsout there that have solutions.
They are doing things and makingbig impact in their local
communities.

(03:15):
But it's such a burden and itbecomes a barrier to have that P
practice and that solutionpublished to be deemed.
Credible and to have thatevidence that it doesn't happen,
that does not mean that it's anyless important that what
somebody else is doing.
It just has not had thatavailability yet, and that is
okay.
So that might not be, theremight not be a body of evidence

(03:39):
supporting it yet, yet.
So give them a chance to havethat happen.
Let's don't dismiss thosesolutions because they don't
have an evidence base behindthem.
Let's look for ways to make itso that they, we can use these
as sources and references and beable to share them with others.
Without having that.

(03:59):
And just keeping in mind afriend of mine, Kate Matthews
said in the presentation we didtogether, we get so focus.
On the outcomes and the evidenceand the evidence leads us to the
outcomes that we forget aboutthe experience and there's so
much to be learned about theexperience.
So don't get caught up on ifthings are evidence based or
not.

(04:19):
Another way that we can.
Adopt and, and help talk aboutand have a culture of acceptance
is when we have these sensitivetopics.
We all have these triggers andwe need to acknowledge that in
order to grow, we need to beable to have and talk through
these talk through ourexperiences.
Sometimes a discussion might gointo an uncomfortable topic.

(04:42):
We don't want people to remainsilent in fear of triggering
someone else but this, butgiving that this is a safe pace.
Safe space to give and receiveinformation in a non-judgmental
way.
And when we can take thosebarriers down.
And, and understanding give thatgrace to people to have that
space to talk through it.
We might misspeak and it's notout of intentional trying to

(05:04):
hurt somebody.
It is just trying to find theright words and we wanna be able
to create that space andunderstanding the people that
are showing up or that ones thatwanna do better.
And they're here to make achange and to applaud that and
give them the credit thatthey're trying to improve and
make that change.
So those are different areasthat we talk about.

(05:24):
And I'm sure there's many more,but these are the ones that kind
of come up the most with us onhow to create a culture of
acceptance.
And I just wanna challenge youthat creating a culture of
acceptance that starts right.
It starts with being involvedwith mama voices.
It starts by listening andknowing how to listen to what
patients are saying instead ofjust making those assumptions.

(05:46):
And that goes such a long way.
So again, this is a shortdifferent kind of lesson and,
and podcasts and coming at youin a totally different format,
but I wanted to bring this toyou all so that you have a
resource going forward whenyou're talking to other people
of this is why it's so importantand this is what it means.
And if you wanna learn moreabout Culture of Acceptance, we
provide this and we talk aboutit in all of our trainings that

(06:07):
we do through our livedexperience integration, we would
love to have.
As part of that, and you canfind those resources on our
website under mommasvoices.org/l ei.
So thank you for coming andjoining us today.
I hope that you've got somethingout of this and you'll be able
to use it later on.
And just check the page to findall of the resources for this.

(06:28):
We'll have some slides for youin a way to cite it in your
presentations going forward.
Thank you.