Patient Gown and White Coat: Uncovering the Narrative
Purpose: To share a creative teaching and learning strategy that one academic DPT program has embedded within its curriculum that focuses on patient centered care, specifically using narrative medicine.
Methods/Description:
Prior to DPT students entering the final year of clinical education experiences, a cloth patient gown was presented to each student during the last clinical education session on campus. Attached to each gown was a note from a "patient" (partial content included here):
“I am wearing a patient gown and I am vulnerable and uncertain of what my future holds. Will you take the time to get to know me? Will you listen to my story and consider the person underneath this gown?”
With this prompt, students were asked to log written stories on the inside of the patient gown with marking pen. Students were also required to respond to discussion posts in an online, asynchronous format during the final year of clinical experiences.
Results/Outcomes: The use of reflection and story-telling embedded within a companion online platform provided students the opportunity to give voice to their experiences and share with peers and faculty members as they uncovered the importance of listening to patient and family perspectives.
Conclusions/Relevance to the conference theme: In order to integrate relational coordination in health care, one must be attentive to patient narratives. Students’ comments supported the importance of this often overlooked dimension of care. This activity supported a dimension of professional transformation that is not often documented in first person narrative.