ABSTRACT
Clinical histories are doctor-centred and tend to create a logical story or sequence of events. This chapter looks at the nature of narratives and their value as a resource in teaching. Understanding narrative is an especially important aspect of teaching communication and consultation skills. The chapter also looks at how narrative gives meaning to experience, and engages the imagination to release perceptive and creative responses. The narrative was written by newly qualified, 25-year-old Mikhail Bulgakov, who was sent to practise medicine in the depths of rural Russia. Patients' narratives, written by patients themselves, are stories about illness from the patient's perspective, including the effect it has on their life, their feelings about the illness itself, and their feelings about doctors and about treatment. The chapter utilizes the novels Regeneration by Pat Barker and The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle to describe the use of literature-based narrative in medical teaching.
