Nurse Storytelling Project, The

Arizona Nurse, Nov 2004 by Rodriguez, Darlene

A Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Nursing Workforce Diversity Grant was recently awarded to the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association's (AzHHA) Campaign for Caring for a Campaign for Caring for Arizona Kids Project. This project is designed to foster an awareness of nursing, attract youth to the profession, and enhance Arizona's capacity to support and respond to nursing career goals of disadvantaged and minority students. This grant specifically addresses nursing through seven projects that focus on the very young (kindergarten through third grade), secondary, and post-secondary school students, who can fill nursing's educational pipeline. The projects also address the need for data collection, media relations, and cultural competency.

Perhaps, the most fun and exciting component will be the Nurse Storytelling Project which focuses on kindergarten through third graders. A series of dolls will be made to facilitate storytelling in the classroom. The stories will introduce students to the variety of nursing roles and characteristics while also educating children on healthy behaviors applicable to their everyday lives. So often children describe a nurse as a white female who wears a white uniform including a cap with a red cross. This project will expose children to realistic portrayals of nurses and their dress, reflecting a diverse population. The Nurse Storytelling Project will allow children to touch vinyl representations of nurses in varied roles, genders, and ethnicities, while listening to the nurse's stories.

A total of 27 dolls will be made: three dolls for each series with three dolls made of each nurse chosen. Additional dolls will be added as funding and sponsorships becomes available. One set of the dolls will be housed on permanent display in the American Museum of Nursing at Arizona State University College of Nursing.

Volunteers Needed

Doll selection, story development, and evaluation will be important components of the project. Volunteer nurses will be needed for storytelling and AzNA members are encouraged to participate. Spanish-speaking nurses and storytellers who are fluent in Native American languages will be especially important, since the focus of the grant is on minority and disadvantaged children. Training for volunteer nurse storytellers will be offered in an orientation session. Storytelling sites will be schools, faith-based communities, libraries, and bookstores. Once the grant has expired, AzNA will assist in sustainability of the project both through supporting ongoing storytelling in the community and cultural competence educational programs.

Importance of Storytelling

Hispanic and Native American people have long used storytelling in their culture. Both cultures have a rich oral tradition using storytelling techniques to pass on pertinent information and teach values and morals. Exposing children to nursing through storytelling continues this tradition. Using this familiar approach to talk to children about nursing and healthy behaviors will hopefully create a lasting impact and influence children to reflect on the stories and choose nursing as a career.

Relating experiences and sharing stories has also been a nursing oral tradition. Nurses use storytelling informally as a teaching aid when orienting or talking to new graduates about important nursing issues. Nurses better remember the key points of teaching when related to a story. Nursing's culture has long included sitting around and revisiting past experiences when talking to novices about the potential impact or consequences of actions. Relating experiences to the consequences and sharing stories has also been a nursing oral tradition. Patient safety can be enhanced when nurses use stories to illustrate their experiences and share them with their colleagues. A recent article describes that, "Every perioperative nurse has a story to tell about his or her practice" and, "lessons learned provide the basis of a story that could save a life, prevent an adverse event, and prevent a colleague from experiencing great personal and professional pain" (Beyea, Killen, & Knox, 2004).

Through the Nurse Storytelling Project, young children will learn healthy behaviors and that nursing is a wonderful and rewarding career. The nursing profession is varied-as varied as the people in nursing. Nurses come in many ethnicities and are found in places other than hospitals and clinics. The Nurse Storytelling Project will assist children to see the variety in nursing and consider nursing as a career. It also provides an opportunity for nurses to continue to cultivate their culture of storytelling.

References

Beyea, S., Killen, A., & Knox, E. (2004). Patient safety first: Learning from storiesA pathway to patient safety. AORN Journal, (79), p. 224-226.

Darlene Rodriguez, RN, Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association