Storytelling in Medicine: How Narrative Can Improve Practice

Throughout our lives, story is the medium each of us uses to make sense of our environment and relationships. Stories provide meaning and context, enriching our experiences and equipping us with a framework to navigate our existence.

This unique, practical book for healthcare trainees, practitioners and educators explores the ideas and practice of narrative and storytelling that lie at the very heart of clinical medicine and the patient ’experience’ of care. It shows how story and narrative can be used effectively to help convey concepts such as prognosis and the effect of illness upon life, and to prepare patients and their relatives for difficult and painful news.

Offering a particular insight into communication by and between healthcare professionals, and how it can be refocused and improved, this updated and expanded second edition remains an invaluable teaching aid for educators working in both small and large formats, and for under- and postgraduate students.

Colin Robertson was Professor of Emergency Medicine and Surgery at the University of Edinburgh and a Consultant to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and is recently retired.

Gareth Clegg is Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Emergency Medicine, University of Edinburgh, UK. Gareth is co-founder of the Emergency Medicine Research Group in Edinburgh (EMERGE) and leads the Resuscitation Research Group, a collaborative involving Edinburgh University, the Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS Lothian. Research interests include the physiology and clinical management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, non-technical skills in time critical resuscitation, and the physiology of fluid resuscitation. The group coordinates the TOPCAT2 project and 3RU team along with a range of other projects relating to all all elements of the OHCA response ’system’ summarised in the Chain of Survival.

James Huntley is a Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at Sidra Medicine and Director Research & Quality, Department of Surgery for Sidra Medicine in Doha, Qatar. Prior he was working as a Paediatric Orthopaedic Consultant in RCH, Govan, Glasgow. He is an Associate Editor for the Scottish Medical Journal, serves on the International Committee for the Scottish Medical Journal and contributed to the BMC Research and Editorial Board that directs the Scientific World Journal. He was a founding member and an associate faculty member of Surgical Trainers (RCSEd) and an honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Glasgow. He has also been invited to participated as an external examiner for MB ChB at the University of Aberdeen and as a Master of Surgery in ChM Trauma and Orthopedics for the University of Edinburgh. Dr Huntley has completed two travelling fellowships: ORS-BORS Travelling Fellowships 2009 and the American British Canadian (ABC) Fellowship 2012. He is interest in teaching and education During his research years at St Cross College in Oxford, Dr Huntley conducted tutorials in anatomy and physiology. He also served as a lecturer in orthopedics and trauma at the University of Edinburgh and as a tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh for the basic surgical skills course. Dr Huntley has written the musculoskeletal chapter of McLeod’s Clinical Examination for 3 editions.