This document provides a summary of the book "True Tales of Organisational Life" by Barbara-Anne Wren. The book explores how healthcare workers experience increasing workload and anxiety about patient safety in an environment of organizational turbulence. It describes how the author creates spaces for staff to build resilience and strengthen their ability to withstand suffering while still finding meaning in their work. Case studies illustrate interventions at the individual, team, and organizational level using systemic and narrative psychology to develop caregivers' confidence in managing patient relationships and themselves.

1. Barbara-Anne Wren
True Tales of
Organisational
Life
KARNAC BOOKS
www.karnacbooks.com
WREN
ISBN 978-1-7822018-9-2
9 781782 201892
All Karnac titles are available as eBooks from karnacbooks.com and other eBook vendors
The context in which healthcare is delivered continues to be one of extreme organisational
turbulence and increasing workload, factors that exacerbate the anxiety felt by staff about
keeping themselves, and their patients, truly safe. At the same time there is a focus on so-
called ‘failures of compassion’ in healthcare services. The need for creative conversations
to promote flexibility, hope and resilience in staff has never been greater.
Barbara-Anne Wren describes ways in which space can be created to strengthen the
capacity to withstand suffering, whilst acknowledging the creativity and meaningfulness
of healthcare work. She describes the application of systemic and narrative psychology to
develop interventions at an individual, team, group, and organisational level. The success
of these interventions to develop caregivers’ confidence to manage the relationships
with their patients and with themselves, as opportunities for healing and compassion, is
compelling. Case studies illuminate the work described throughout, and the link between
storytelling and health is explored.
‘The NHS remains a noble ideal to which the majority of patients and staff are
connected by a metaphorical umbilical cord despite the challenges it faces. In this book
Barbara-Anne Wren skilfully explores the stresses and strains involved in remaining human
while delivering optimal care.’
—Professor John Pepper, OBE, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, Royal Brompton
Hospital
‘In this fascinating book, Barbara-Anne Wren describes the spaces she has created to
help staff temporarily separate from the dance of organisational life while ensuring that
the psychological work stays close to its movement. The tales she tells take us into the
dance, move in tune with the dancer, and lead us through the steps of some of the more
memorable ones. An impressive, accessible and moving book.’
—Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes, President of the British Psychological Society
‘Schwartz Rounds have the power to change healthcare. This book, replete with real-life
narrative, is itself the story of how to put the patient right at the centre of care. In doing
so, it provides a key to a space that will allow health professionals to rediscover the joy
of caring.’
—Dr Muiris Houston, Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities, Trinity College Dublin;
columnist and health analyst at The Irish Times
BARBARA-ANNE WREN is a psychologist and organisational consultant working
privately and in the NHS. She is Director of Wren Psychology Associates, Consultant
Psychologist and Schwartz Round Lead at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, and
a visiting lecturer at City University, London.
TrueTalesofOrganisationalLife
Cover image © Barbara-Anne Wren