Hero making through storytelling: the nurse manager's challenge

Storytelling is an effective way of transferring knowledge and values from one person to another. Stories can cross individual, cultural, and educational differences more powerfully than most other methods of learning. For thousands of years stories have been used for teaching. A hospital in California, Alta Bates Medical Center, has begun to use fairy tales to show the affect employees have on patients. Managing by stories offers an exciting way to approach mentoring, orientation, governance, and patient/family teaching. You can't be everywhere and you can't touch all the people in your unit. Your stories, however, will live around the clock when you are not there. Your stories will guide your unit much more successfully than management based on information alone. Try it!