"What is a 'Culture of Acceptance'" with Nicole Purnell

In this must-watch podcast episode, Nicole Purnell, MoMMAs 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 MoMMAs Voices
MoMMAs Voices (Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Advocates) is the first-ever maternal health patient advocates program bringing together real patient and family voices. We're made up of dozens of maternal health organizations who represent all types of maternal health conditions, as well as cross-cutting topics like maternal mental health, racial equity, healthcare delivery, and patient-provider partnership. We sit at the center of maternal health improvements, connecting and training patients with lived experiences, providers, quality improvement leaders, researchers, and policymakers to move forward improvements in maternal care. We are a program of the Preeclampsia Foundation.

Episode Transcript

Speaker (00:01):
Hi, I'm Nicole Purnell, the program director for MoMMAs
Voices.
In today's episode of the PowerMoMMAs 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 disclaimerbefore we start any presentation
when we're talking withpatients.
And it's something that hadbeen asked about recently,
several times people looking fora resource.
So I wanted to put somethingtogether for you all that then
you can use as well.
So what is it this thing thatwe get 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, alwaysdo this in our presentations

(01:05):
that 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 byexample in our practices is to
create this culture ofacceptance.
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, andthat is okay.
I wanna encourage you not toget defensive, not to not to
get, not to raise your hand, notto correct that patient.
Take a moment to curb thaturge.
These are moments to learnfrom.

(02:36):
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.
Another way that we can talkabout and encourage a culture of

(03:00):
acceptance is through talkingabout evidence.
So oftentimes there areorganizations, especially
community-based organizationsout there that have solutions.
They are doing things andmaking big impact in their local
communities.
But it's such a burden and itbecomes a barrier to have that P
practice and that solutionpublished to be deemed.

(03:22):
Credible and to have thatevidence that it doesn't happen,
that does not mean that it'sany less 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
supporting it yet, yet.

(03:42):
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.
And just keeping in mind afriend of mine, Kate Matthews
said in the presentation we didtogether, we get so focus.

(04:05):
On the outcomes and theevidence and the evidence leads
us to the outcomes that weforget about the experience and
there's so much to be learnedabout the experience.
So don't get caught up on ifthings are evidence based or
not.
Another way that we can.
Adopt and, and help talk aboutand have a culture of acceptance

(04:25):
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.
We don't want people to remainsilent in fear of triggering
someone else but this, butgiving that this is a safe pace.

(04:48):
Safe space to give and receiveinformation in a non-judgmental
way.
And when we can take thosebarriers down.
And, and understanding givethat grace to people to have
that space to talk through it.
We might misspeak and it's notout of intentional trying to
hurt somebody.
It is just trying to find theright words and we wanna be able

(05:08):
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.
And I'm sure there's many more,but these are the ones that
kind of come up the most with uson how to create a culture of

(05:30):
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.
And that goes such a long way.
So again, this is a shortdifferent kind of lesson and,

(05:52):
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
we do through our livedexperience integration, we would
love to have.
As part of that, and you canfind those resources on our

(06:14):
website under mommasvoices.org/l ei.
So thank you for coming andjoining us today.
I hope that you've gotsomething out of this and you'll
be able to use it later on.
And just check the page to findall of the resources for this.
We'll have some slides for youin a way to cite it in your
presentations going forward.
Thank you.