This column describes the influence of narrative on individuals and societies. More importantly, it describes the importance of story in dealing with health and quality of life issues. The idea of story as an epistemology is discussed. Individual stories which were created in seminars on writing for publication are presented along with stories and fables that lend further understanding to lived experiences of health. Ideas for teaching-learning in nursing regarding the issues in the stories are presented. Parse’s human becoming theory is used to further explicate understanding of these ideas.
Baumann, S., Carroll, K., Damgaard, G., Millar, B., & Welch, A. (2001). An international human becoming hermeneutic study of Tom Hegg’s A Cup of Christmas Tea. Nursing Science Quarterly, 14, 316-321.
2.
Bradt, K. (1997). Story as a way of knowing. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward.
3.
Bruner, J. (2002). Making stories. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
4.
Bunkers, S. S. (2000). Growing story: A teaching-learning process. Nursing Science Quarterly, 13, 24-30.
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Dickens, C. (1997). A Christmas carol. New York: Dell. (Original work published 1843)
6.
Friedman, E. (1990). Friedman’s fables. New York: The Guilford Press.
7.
Hegg, T. (1982). A cup of Christmas tea. Minneapolis, MN: Waldman House Press.
8.
McKenna, M. (1997). Keepers of the story. New York: Orbis Books.
9.
Mullett, G. (1991). Spider woman stories. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. (Original work published 1979)
10.
Parse, R. R. (1997). Joy-sorrow: A study using the Parse research method. Nursing Science Quarterly, 10, 80-87.
11.
Parse, R. R. (1998). The human becoming school of thought. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
