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Fifty-five word stories are brief pieces of creative writing that use elements of poetry, prose, or both to encapsulate key experiences in health care. These stories have appeared in Family Medicine1 and JAMA2 and have been used to teach family medicine faculty development fellows.3 Writers and readers of 55-word stories gain insight into key moments of the healing arts; the brevity of the pieces adds to both the writing and reading impact. Fifty-five word stories may be used with trainees to stimulate personal reflection on key training experiences or may be used by individual practitioners as a tool for professional growth.

"We argue that neither approach is optimal and recommend a third alternative that stresses the patient's story of illness and engages the doctor's capacity to understand, interpret and communicate the meaning of that story.2 We term this the "storied case report" in recognition of the importance of narrative to the case report."

"Narratives have always been a vital part of medicine. Stories about patients, the experience of caring for them, and their recovery from illness have always been shared-among physicians as well as among patients and their relatives. With the evolution of "modern" medicine, narratives were increasingly neglected in favor of "facts and findings," which were regarded as more scientific and objective. Now, in recent years medical narrative is changing-from the stories about patients and their illnesses, patient narratives and the unfolding and interwoven story between health care professionals and patients are both gaining momentum, leading to the creation or defining of narrative-based medicine (NBM). The term was coined deliberately to mark its distinction from evidence-based medicine (EBM); in fact, NBM was propagated to counteract the shortcomings of EBM.1,2 But what is NBM? Is it a specific therapeutic tool, a special form of physician-patient communication, a qualitative research tool, or does it simply signify a particular attitude towards patients and doctoring? It can be all of the above with different forms or genres of narrative or practical approach called for depending on the field of application. "

These strange-but-true nursing stories were told by nurses and nurse assistants in various places around the Web. Read, shudder, and enjoy!

"We believe that graphic stories have an important role in patient care, medical education, and the social critique of the medical profession. What follows is an introduction to graphic stories, with some examples of what they are, how and why they work, and how they can enhance teaching and patient care."

"In a larger context, however, such activities may help to enhance our ability to interpret stories, and to see patients in the context of their own story, which is what makes the care of patients a human and humane endeavour. "

"Welcome! This is a place where stories about Canadian family medicine are shared by family physicians, patients, and their communities. These stories deliver powerful messages about the meaning of being a family physician, and about the contributions of family medicine and family physicians to the history of medicine, health care and life in Canada."

The Patient Voices programme was founded by social entrepreneurs Pip Hardy and Tony Sumner in 2003, and aims to facilitate the telling and the hearing of some of the unwritten and unspoken stories of ordinary people so that those who devise and implement strategy in health and social care, as well as the professionals and clinicians directly involved in care, may carry out their duties in a more informed and compassionate manner. We hope that, as a result of seeing the stories, patients, their carers and clinicians may meet as equals and work respectfully together for the benefit of all.

"The Patient Voices program was founded by social entrepreneurs Pip Hardy and Tony Sumner in 2003, and aims to facilitate the telling and the hearing of some of the unwritten and unspoken stories of ordinary people so that those who devise and implement strategy in health and social care, as well as the professionals and clinicians directly involved in care, may carry out their duties in a more informed and compassionate manner. We hope that, as a result of seeing the stories, patients, their carers and clinicians may meet as equals and work respectfully together for the benefit of all."

"A new type of CBPS, the digital storytelling system, has been developed and evaluated which and appears to be successful in overcoming some of the limitations of earlier CBPS by featuring patient's stories in their own words, by focusing on problems rather than diseases, and by having stories that are quick for students to work through."

"Drawing on case studies from news media to visualization research, we identify distinct genres of narrative visualization. We characterize these design differences, together with interactivity and messaging, in terms of the balance between the narrative flow intended by the author (imposed by graphical elements and the interface) and story discovery on the part of the reader (often through interactive exploration). Our framework suggests design strategies for narrative visualization, including promising under-explored approaches to journalistic storytelling and educational media."

"As our collection of cases grows, we hope to collect teachers' stories of the road to implementation and reflections on interprofessional education using the LTWC collection. Please let us know if you would like to share your experiences (you can also request access to join the discussion threads below)."

"The effective practice of medicine requires narrative competence, that is, the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others. Medicine practiced with narrative competence, called narrative medicine, is proposed as a model for humane and effective medical practice. "

moving story about caring for a self destructive young man

Examples of Health stories created with StoryWorks

"The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, a first-of-its-kind social media center focused on health care, builds on Mayo Clinic's leadership among health care providers in adopting social media tools, which began with podcasting in 2005. Mayo Clinic has the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube and more than 60,000 "followers" on Twitter, as well as an active Facebook page with well over 20,000 connections. With its News Blog, Podcast Blog and Sharing Mayo Clinic, a blog that enables patients and employees to tell their Mayo Clinic stories, Mayo has been a pioneer in hospital blogging. MayoClinic.com, Mayo's consumer health information site, also hosts a dozen blogs on topics ranging from Alzheimer's to The Mayo Clinic Diet."

Abstract: Drawing from a dialogue between Transformative Learning and NarrativeMedicine, Transformative Medicine seeks to expose detrimental power systems and unchallenged assumptions between physician and patient, indoctrinated through medicaleducation, and advocate dialogue and critical reflection around a patient's storied experience to improve the quality of medical interpretations and intervention.