Types of Writing
Experiential Narrative
Information on the experiential/personal narrative assignment has been taken from the Nursing 342 (Nursing as a Health Service 1) syllabus. For more exact directions, please consult your professor's assignment.
What is the goal of a personal narrative?
The objective of a personal narrative is to tell a story, to account
an important or memorable experience that happened to you or one of your
patients. These stories help us to better understand the illness experience
of clients and convey the impact that serious illness has on our clients.
Listening to client stories provides nurses with the opportunity to develop
therapeutic interventions that will help clients cope with their illness.
In addition, it provides the client with an important means of self-understanding
and expression.
What are some guidelines* for interviewing and writing a personal narrative?
When you interview a patient about an illness experience, the goal is to capture that person's unique perspective about living with illness. You can capture that perspective through asking perceptive questions and actively listening.
To do the interview, explain to the patient that you would like to understand the everyday experience of living with illness. Ask him/her to think of an incident related to the illness that stands out in his/her mind. Prompt the client occasionally with phrases such as "Can you tell me more about that?" or "How did that make you feel?"
To write the personal narrative, try to summarize the client's experience and convey the his/her unique perspective on his/her illness. Include the patient's own words as much as possible. In the conclusion, reflect on how the patient's story broadened your understanding of the illness experience and how it might help nurses in planning interventions.
Example of a critiqued Experiential narrative
*Guidelines are adapted from Dr. Jeanne Sorrell's and Dr. Georgine Redmond's Community Based Nursing Practice: Learning Through Students' Stories, pp. 55-75.