Story telling: a search for meaning within nursing practice

Story telling has been used for centuries as a powerful vehicle for communication, education, recreation and the preservation of cultural identity. In this paper the appeal of stories is discussed, and placed in a nursing context, with reference to the health care environment, which is increasingly dominated by technology, and the collection of impersonal 'information' against a background of market forces and competition. It is argued that this environment alienates nurses from each other, and from their patients, leaving them emotionally impoverished and distanced from the basic humanity of their craft. The utility of storytelling as a professional development tool is discussed, and numerous examples reviewed, in relation to pre-registration, post registration and ongoing experiential learning situations. The simplicity and immediacy of the storytelling tradition is compared to the academically generated and rhetoric laden notion of 'reflective practice'. The paper concludes that storytelling is an accessible yet powerful tool which contextualises and humanises nursing knowledge, facilitating a deeper understanding of self and others.