Learning from Stories

Experience on the Parent Stories web-page is represented here as a collection of digital stories from parents in neonatal care aiming to provide an educational resource for anyone working in this specialty.  

For each story, consider……

  • What were the key messages from the parent(s)?
  • What did you learn about the parent’s experience?
  • Does listening to parent stories make you more empathic?
  • How might hearing the parents’ stories influence or change your practice?

Listening to stories enable us to learn from the experiences of others. Stories have the power to transform learning. In education, stories can not only engage and motivate the learner but also have the capacity to produce a deep level of understanding and a clear link with practice (Jarvis et al, 2004; Hoggan and Cranton, 2015).  Digital stories are said to be a powerful education tool (Conle, 2003; Gazarian, 2010; Robin, 2016). In healthcare, they can lead to greater understanding and compassion towards patients (Hardy and Sumner, 2018).

In the context of neonatal care, by exploring the narratives and perspectives of others, we can learn to be empathic (Fairbairn, 2002). This comes from three sources…….      

From experience            From metaphors          From parents’ views

  • Adapted from Petty et al (2019)
  • Illustration by Jack Dempsey

Supporting Literature

  • Conle, C. (2003) An Anatomy of Narrative Curricula. Educational Researcher, 32(3), 3-15.
  • Fairbairn, G.J. (2002) Ethics, Empathy and Storytelling in Professional Development. Learning in Health and Social Care. 1(1), 22-32.
  • Gazarian, P. K. (2010) ‘Digital stories: incorporating narrative pedagogy’, The Journal of Nursing Education, 49(5), pp. 287–290.
  • Hardy, P, and Sumner, T. (2018) Cultivating Compassion How Digital Storytelling is Transforming Healthcare (2nd Edition). Palgrave MacMillan; London.
  • Hoggan, C., & Cranton, P. (2015). Promoting transformative learning through reading fiction. Journal of Transformative Education, 13(1), 6-25.
  • Jarvis, J, Dyson, J, Thomas, K, Graham, S, Iantaffi, A and Burchell, H. (2004). Learning through creating stories: developing student teachers understanding of the experiences of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003733.htm
  • Robin (2016) The Power of Digital Storytelling to Support Teaching and Learning. Digital Education Review. 30, 17-29. http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/der/article/view/16104/pdf