As faculty in today's high-tech teaching environment, we must use visual communication for its maximum power to communicate our narratives. We have a plethora of simulated stories, as well as internet-based stories of patient experiences, to guide us in our teaching.
As faculty in today's high-tech teaching environment, we must use visual communication for its maximum power to communicate our narratives. We have a plethora of simulated stories, as well as Internet-based stories of patient experiences, to guide us in our teaching.
Really, there is nothing new in narrative nursing, perhaps only the name. As nurse, educators we have used storytelling in our teaching for years. In the classroom, we present classic patient stories to illustrate the complexity of the human experience of health and illness. When we use simulation in teaching, the story unfolds through the scenario.
What is new for me and, perhaps, will also be new for you is the synthesis of information about how we can best use stories in a formal structure of teaching, studying, and practicing narrative nursing. The nursing literature is replete with examples of how storytelling is used in education, practice, and research (Fitzpatrick, 2017). Our use of the name narrative nursing parallels the use of narrative medicine, as reflected in the work of Charon (2006) and, more recently, that of Robertson and Clegg (2017).
Horton-Deutsch and Sherwood (2017) provide excellent examples of storytelling in reflective practice as a means of transforming education and improving outcomes. The works of Smith and Liehr (2005) and Wang and Geale (2015) provide guidance for theory and research methodology, with stories foundational to the process of advancing our scholarship. And our technology continues to advance, leading us to visualize our narratives, beyond the use of words. As Berinato (2016) emphasizes, visual communication is a "must-have" skill for today's leaders.
As faculty in today's high-tech teaching environment, we must use visual communication for its maximum power to communicate our narratives. We have a plethora of simulated stories, as well as internet-based stories of patient experiences, to guide us in our teaching. We also have narratives of exquisite nursing care to guide our education, to teach students best practices.
Labeling our scholarly work, including our educational practices, narrative nursing provides an important structure to communicate with other health professionals. Through narrative nursing, we can also enhance our professional practice. Storytelling in many cultures and families serves to transmit the values and experiences that make the family or culture unique. Narrative nursing will capture our nursing values and assure that these are systematically communicated to generations of nurses to come.
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