2024 NESHCo Annual Conference

Communications and marketing teams have a unique vantage point when it comes to some of the most critical issues impacting healthcare. More often than not, what we see is complex, challenging to address and a potential reputational risk that can impact decisions about how, and even if, we talk about a problem out loud. Learn from the experiences of the Communications and Engagement Strategies team at the University of Vermont Health Network, who earned organizational buy-in for a compelling strategic storytelling project featuring front-line caregivers who bravely shared their stories of violence on the job. “End the silence on healthcare violence” played out across owned, earned and paid channels, and traveled into the national and global conversation through industry coverage and more than 4.6 million views through news media amplification. The body of work, aimed at increasing awareness and stimulating new conversations toward solutions, was part of an ongoing communications strategy to use storytelling to humanize big issues in healthcare.