Tell Well is a creative writing and storytelling workshop designed especially for healthcare providers. Our workshops facilitate writing and storytelling through the use of specific tools that support healthcare providers in feeling more comfortable sharing their stories with a larger audience. Tell Well is a collaborative environment for creative exploration.
Special 2-Day Workshop for Registered Nurses in collaboration with ANA-Illinois
Dates: Saturday March 10 and Saturday March 17
Hours: 10 am to 4 pm
Cost: Free. Lunch and materials will be provided.
Location: Near University of Illinois at Chicago
Registration for this workshop is closed.
2-Day Workshop for Registered Nurses in collaboration with ANA-Illinois
Dates: Saturday May 5 and Saturday May 12
Hours: 10 am to 4 pm
Cost: TBD to cover 8.5 CE credits, food, space and materials.
Location: Near University of Illinois at Chicago
For more information and to apply to participate in this workshop, click here:
Come hear stories developed in workshops. Showcases are open to the public.
Tell Well Presents: The Fine Art of Nursing
Date: Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 7:30 pm
Cost: FREE. We recommend you reserve your ticket here: https://linkshall.ticketfly.com/event/1647996-tell-well-fine-art-chicago/
Location: Links Hall, 3111 North Western Avenue, Chicago. http://www.linkshall.org/
Why would I do this?
In order to have some fun and make stories. Tell Well is an opportunity to gain new skills, explore your experiences and be a part of a supportive collaborative community. Through using writing tools especially designed for healthcare professionals and working with a facilitated group, participants can develop new understandings of their work and some writing of which they can be proud.
Who is a good fit for participating in Tell Well?
Anyone who works or has worked in healthcare.
What do I need to do before I show up at the workshop?
We will send all participants an email with some questions to contemplate before the workshop. We ask only that your read through the questions.
How much will this cost?
Most of our workhops are free. We list the prices on the Upcoming Workshops page.
Do I have to come to all workshop sessions?
Yes. The sessions build on each other and we want you and your workshop cohort to have access to all the tools we use. Please don’t apply for a workshop if you cannot commit to all of the time.
What if I have never written a story before?
No problem. Please come. The workshop is designed to support writers of all experience levels and interest levels. We celebrate the artist in each healthcare professional.
Why is there a showcase? What is a showcase?
A showcase is a time for Tell Well participants to get up in front of an audience and share some of their work. Participants have the opportunity to work with performance coaches to prepare for their showcase. This is an exciting opportunity to show off hard work and practice telling stories. It is also an opportunity for the public to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to provide healthcare.
This sounds awesome. How do I apply?
Great. Please apply here.
We could not be happier. Tell Well is a unique professional development opportunity for your employees. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about hosting a Tell Well Workshop and our best answers:
What does Tell Well offer our organization?
We offer a unique professional development opportunity. Tell Well seeks to reduce compassion fatigue and burnout among healthcare providers. Our creative writing and storytelling workshop offers life-long tools to help employees respond to the challenges of the health care industry.
Are we a good partner host for Tell Well?
Clinics, hospitals, schools or other organizations interested in bringing together healthcare providers to participate in a professional development opportunity make excellent partners.
Who would participate?
We work with partners to determine the make-up of a workshop. Our services are designed to support participants in multiple healthcare professions and with a range of writing experience.
What does it cost?
Please contact us for more details.
What results will we see?
A Tell Well workshop fosters collaboration and creativity. These are skills that participants can take back to the work environment. Beyond that, participants will leave the workshop with new tools to use in response to challenging experiences. We strive towards an increase in workplace satisfaction and a decrease in burnout.
Come back soon to read some amazing works from our participants. They really did tell it well!
Tell Well is a collaboration between ANA-Illinois, Kathryn Kruse and Rebecca Singer.
ANA-Illinois is the professional association for registered nurses in Illinois. For more information about ANA-Illinois please visit http://ana-illinois.org
Kathryn Kruse is Tell Well's artistic director, workshop facilitator and curriculum designer. She makes the magic happen during the workshops and showcases. Kathryn is an educator, curriculum developer and writer. Coming out of a background in violence intervention and community organizing, much of her work focuses on communication, especially with health care providers. She has over 12 years of experience in adult education and excels in creating collaborative, supportive, student-centered learning spaces that foster growth and confidence. Kathryn received her BA from University of Wisconsin-Madison in English and History and holds a master’s degree in Writing from UNLV. You can find out more at kathrynkruse.com
Rebecca Singer is Tell Well's program director. She works behind the scenes to get the workshops and showcases in place. She also drives the evaluation process. Rebecca is a doctorally-trained nurse and faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing where she teaches population and community health courses. She spends her summers working with Doctors Without Borders, a medical humanitarian organization with which she has worked since 2005. As a nurse, Rebecca has provided care in a variety of settings with a focus on engaging communities to promote health. Before becoming a nurse, she worked in community relations, advocacy, publishing, education, and community development all of which inform her nursing practice.
Many other people contribute to make Tell Well a success.
Caity-Shea Violette is a playwright, actor and nonprofit development professional based in Chicago, IL. Her work has been seen in Washington D.C., Las Vegas, Minneapolis, NYC, Toronto, Denver, and Chicago. She is passionate about exploring trauma, invisible disabilities, and gender-based violence by creating new work for women on the stage and page. Caity-Shea is also an active advocate for accessibility in the arts. You can learn more about her at www.caitysheaviolette.com
Ira S. Murfin is a theatre artist, writer, and scholar based in Chicago. His research and interdisciplinary performance work concern the relationship between talk, text, and the performance event. He holds an Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre & Drama from Northwestern University and an MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His performance work has been presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, Links Hall, Sector 2337, Block Museum of Art, Tritriangle, and the Rhinoceros Theater Festival, among other places. He also makes work as a founding member of the devised theatre collective The Laboratory for the Development of Substitute Materials. Critical and creative writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Performance Research, Theatre Topics, Theatre Journal, Theatre Research International, Studies in Theatre & Performance, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Chicago Arts Journal, Present Tense Pamphlets, the MCA Chicago Magazine, the Ransom Center’s Cultural Compass, the book and website Shakespeare 400 Chicago, and Requited, where he is also Performance Editor.
If you have any questions about participating in a workshop or hosting Tell Well, please send us a message. We look forward to hearing from you.
