This document describes a course called "Telling the Stories of Medicine" that uses narrative arts to help nursing students develop empathy. The course aims to help students apply critical thinking to various narrative formats, construct original narratives integrating patient and clinician experiences, and develop works that demonstrate active listening skills. It was taught in a virtual format using tools like Blackboard and VoiceThread, which allowed for variety and safe distance in discussions. Student feedback showed the course helped them re-evaluate the importance of nursing and their impact. The conclusion discusses the need for narrative-based humanities in health education and the potential of virtual platforms.
1. Narrative Learning in the
Virtual Landscape: A Model
from a Baccalaureate Nursing
Program
Meghan MacNamara, MFA
meghmacn@gmail.com
2. Course Description
ENG 350: Telling the Stories of Medicine
This course builds narrative competencies to
inform communication between healthcare
professionals and patients while providing
creative resources for workplace challenges.
Narrative arts will help to facilitate empathy in
clinician/patient interaction.
3. Learning Outcomes
• Apply critical thinking to various narrative formats.
• Construct original narratives that integrate patient and
clinician experience.
• Develop original work that reflects an ability to listen
actively to another’s experience.
• Identify necessary components of narrative in the
healthcare setting.
4. • Examine cohesive and detailed narratives in both
scholarly and creative formats.
• Plan an original work that includes several
interdisciplinary focal points within a single narrative.
• Solve technical problems and logical incongruities
that obscure the clarity and/or intention of a
narrative work.
• Utilize both scholarly research and personal
experience in writing about a medically pertinent
subject.
Learning Outcomes
23. “…completel
y changed
my personal
view and
approach to
nursing and
made me
completely
re-evaluate
the
importance
of nursing
and the
impact I have
in my job.”
24.
25. “This course presented an
amazing outlet for
examining and
meaningfully processing
our experiences in health
care and with patients. It
provided an opportunity to
step back and explore our
passion for nursing and
the human experience
within nursing.”
26. …absolute need to present
narrative-based humanities to
students within all disciplines of
health care education