Why is it important to tell stories, what value do they serve?
Storytelling is as old as time and humanizes learning by creating participatory and immersive experiences. We use stories to make sense of our world. Then, we share stories of our lived experiences with others. Pairing the power of storytelling with digital tools is digital storytelling, and digital stories have the potential to transform health care systems by cultivating understanding and compassion.
Discussions in late 2019 regarding preparations for the 2020 Year of the Nurse and Midwife resulted in the germination of an idea: developing digital stories to help showcase the wide and varied work of family nursing. The IFNA Practice Committee, under the leadership of Maria do Céu Barbieri-Figueiredo and Yuuko Mabrey Johnson, took up the challenge.
Members of the IFNA Practice Committee, including Maria do Céu Barbieri-Figueiredo (Portugal), Yuuko Mabrey Johnson (U.S.), and Petra Brysiewicz (South Africa), teamed up with IFNA members David Clisbee, Lynn Kuechle, and Sandra Eggenberger from The Glen Taylor Institute for Family and Society at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
After creating a digital storytelling platform that could be used on any device from anywhere in the world thanks to Flipgrid, members of the Practice Committee volunteered to tell their stories during a pilot of this idea. Individuals recorded their stories using the simple and easy-to-use platform. The stories serve to showcase international and collaborative storytelling with storytellers speaking in their own languages. These authentic stories come from practicing family nurses, educators, researchers, and academics highlighting the work they do.
To date four such Family Nursing digital stories in Spanish, Portuguese, and English have been developed and captioned in English.
To experience these stories, follow this link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz3tZZf-j7jcrjYJOE6wuGxEfC8QEhhNm or https://mediaspace.minnstate.edu/playlist/dedicated/1_8yhgswbt/.
Sharing what family nursing is and what family nurses do across the world is a powerful resource that can serve to promote this speciality as well as IFNA as an organisation.
Are you interested? Would you like to tell your story? We are interested in hearing your story and encourage you to participate in this initiative…..it’s very easy to do!
Follow this link for instructions on how to tell your story on the platform: https://mediaspace.minnstate.edu/media/Tell+your+story+on+FlipGrid/1_to4f1tz9. The QR code within the instructions leads to the storytelling platform. It is also below.
If you’d rather record from your computer, you can access platform by following this link: https://flipgrid.com/aae847bd
Maria do Céu Barbieri-Figueiredo currently serves as coordinator professor at the Escola Superior de Enfermagem do Porto (School of Nursing of Porto) and University of Porto, Portugal where she is involved in undergraduate and post-graduate nursing education.
Yuuko Mabrey Johnson works with diverse populations of infants and toddlers and their families through the auspices of Federal Part C Early Intervention and the California Early Start Programs.
Petra Brysiewicz is a Professor in the School of Nursing & Public Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
David Clisbee teaches in the Computer Information Science department at Minnesota State University, Mankato, in the U.S.
Lynn Kuechle is the coordinator at Glen Taylor Nursing Institute for Family and Society at Minnesota State University, Mankato, in the U.S.
Sandra Eggenberger is Professor and founding Director of the Glen Taylor Nursing Institute for Family and Society at Minnesota State University, Mankato, in the U.S.
