Storytelling in Medical Education: Narrative Medicine as a Resource for Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Objective: The study intended to use narrative medicine study for interdisciplinary collaboration to let medical and healthcare students have a chance to interact with one another and listen to patients&rsquo
stories to enhance students&rsquo
reflective thinking, communication, empathy, and narrative medicine writing skills. Methods: A fifteen-week quasi-experimental design was used to examine the learning outcomes of the intervention. Two groups of students were randomly assigned as the experimental group (33 students) and the control group (32 students). Before and after the intervention, both groups had to fill in a Reflective Thinking Scale for Healthcare Students and Providers (RTS-HSP), Patient&ndash
Healthcare Provider Communication Scale (P-HCS), Empathy Scale in Patient Care (ES-PC), and Analytic Narrative Medicine Writing Scoring Rubric (ANMWSR). Results: The findings showed that on the reflective thinking scale, experimental group students had significantly higher reflective thinking posttest scores in &ldquo
reflective skepticism,&rdquo
&ldquo
empathetic reflection,&rdquo
and &ldquo
critical open-mindedness,&rdquo
but not in &ldquo
self-examination.&rdquo
As for patient&ndash
healthcare provider communication, they had significantly higher posttest scores in all &ldquo
perception of trust and receptivity,&rdquo
patient-centered information giving,&rdquo
rapport building,&rdquo
facilitation of patient involvement&rdquo
factors. As for empathy, they had significant higher posttest scores in &ldquo
behavioral empathy&rdquo
affective empathy,&rdquo
intelligent empathy.&rdquo
In narrative medical writing skills, they had significant higher posttest scores in the &ldquo
attention &rarr
representation &rarr
affiliation,&rdquo
depth of reflection,&rdquo
focus and context structure,&rdquo
ideas and elaboration&rdquo
sections, but not in the &ldquo
language and conventions&rdquo
section. Conclusion: The findings suggest that narrative medicine is worth recommending for interdisciplinary collaboration for healthcare education.