Suzanne Dean

The University of Sydney, Australia

Abstract Title: Storytelling as a Pedagogy for Nursing Education

Biography:

Sue Dean has 30 years experience in the tertiary sector, teaching healthcare communication to Nursing, Public Health, Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine students. Sue has been the recipient of many local and National teaching citations and awards. Her research area and expertise is in developing empathy and compassion in nursing students and nursing professionals. She has published widely in peer reviewed journals, contributed book chapters, and presented at National and International forums in her area of interest and expertise.

Research Interest:

Storytelling has for many years been used in nursing education as a way of illustrating real-world practice situations and to understand the human element of health care (Karlowicz 2023). When we present educational content through storytelling, we can create authentic, memorable learning experiences that cultivate deeper understanding, and develop in students an appreciation of how the human element of care is fundamental to nursing practice. Interpersonal interaction and person- centred care is fundamental to nursing practice. When students are exposed to the telling of stories which highlight authentic clinical experiences, learning is enhanced through contextualisation. Stories support memory retention by linking information to a sequence of events, characters and emotions. Previous studies suggest that through well - crafted stories, educators can facilitate students relationship - based competencies, ultimately shaping empathic, compassionate and professional nurses. Storytelling begins with a story but in the educational project presented here, we were interested in students views of the use and effectiveness of stories. This presentation discusses the results of a thematic analysis of focus group data. We were interested in how students saw empathy and compassion demonstrated in nursing practice by the stories told by nurses from a range of practice settings, in a subject in the final semester of a Bachelor of Nursing program. The subject, Empathy and Compassion in Nursing Practice, was developed in the context of storytelling. Whilst storytelling in nursing education is usually incorporated in an adhoc manner, we propose that acknowledging and integrating storytelling as a pedagogical strategy, attitudes may be changed more effectively than other teaching strategies (Mazzocco et al 2010).