Review of the Elevate PX 2025 PCPC Gathering

by Rosie Bartel

At the gathering of the Patient and Care Partner Community Group at Elevate PX 2025, the attending members of the Global Patient and Family Advisory Board (GPFAB) were asked to share a 5-minute story. As I was telling the group that we might not all need a prepared 5-minute story, one of the GPFAB members said to me, “But Rosie, my story needs to be told!” At that moment, I realized how important it is to patients, families, and care partners to tell their stories.

How were we going to use these 5-minute stories? After a half-hour presentation by Tanya Lord and myself about storytelling, especially the six-word story made famous by Ernest Hemingway, we began the interactive part of the presentation.

First, I will share the story behind the six-word story. Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway won a bet by writing the six-word story “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” Ernest Hemingway once bet a bunch of fellows at a bar that he could make them cry with a short story six-words long. If he won the bet, each guy would have to fork over 10 bucks. He won the bet.

A six-word story is an entire story told in six words. It is a short narrative that can have all the emotional themes of longer stories—from funny to dramatic, sad to scary. While these quick stories don’t have the classic beginning, middle, and end of a traditional storyline, they have a subject and verb that give the reader a sense of what has happened and a bit of conflict.

At each table at our gathering, a small group of attendees were asked to write a six-word story about the 5-minute story shared at their table by the GPFAB member. The focus was on how this story could create change for patient outcomes. After fifteen minutes, the groups were asked to share their six-word stories, as well as the story behind the six-word story. The buzz in the room was phenomenal. The six-word stories were a hit.

But that was only the beginning of the fun. Next, three GPFAB members were asked to share an ineffective or bad 5-minute story that would be critiqued by the group using the information shared earlier at the gathering and in our Storytelling Guide (See link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rkDE8SAwDNEDw_V0sDmxFgbaMfYomL4/view?usp=drivesdk).

These three stories showed the why, how, when, and who should be sharing stories (or not be sharing stories) and reinforced the importance of understanding the three needs of any audience when storytelling. Below is a snapshot from our Storytelling Guide. They include:

• Make me love you. (Touch)

Objective: Establish a deep emotional connection with the audience by sharing personal and heartfelt experiences that humanize your story and foster empathy, making the audience feel invested in your journey.

• Tell me something I don’t (Teach)

Objective: Educate the audience by providing new insights or perspectives based on your personal experience.

• Give me something I can take with me when I leave. (Tools)

Objective: Equip the audience with practical tools or actionable strategies they can implement in their own lives or work.

This exercise was one of the highlights of Elevate PX  2025. The conference photographer even got involved by stopping by to interact with us. This was a fun way of learning about storytelling and how to engage patients, families, and care partners.