A Review on Narrative Medicine: An Innovative Approach in Medical Education

In medical science, narratives are vital. Always stories about patients, their care experiences, and the improvement of the diseases are expressed among physicians and other health care teams. These narratives, in addition to being effective in the evolution of thought, are also considered as an active teaching method. This study was conducted with the aim of introducing narrative medicine as an approach to medical education.

This study was conducted by narrative reviewing and searching the electronic texts and articles in the databases, Science Direct, ProQuest, PubMed, ISI Web of Science and the Google Scholar search engine, and the keywords of narrative-based medicine, narrative medicine, narration, teaching and medical education, and equivalents in Persian, since 1980. After removing repetitive articles, and considering the direct link of the articles to the study objectives, only abstracts of the articles that were available in full text were reviewed.

Of the papers included in the study, 32 articles were submitted to the final review, 5 of which were Persian, and the rest were English. Discussions related to the narrative medicine approach in medical education were extracted and the results of this study were presented as four general themes including the concept, applications, implications, and limitations of using a narrative approach.

It is necessary to consider a special education position with a change in cultural attitudes and practices, and medical students should become familiar with the practical application of narratives from the beginning of their studies in order to learn humanism, professionalism, medical ethics, Diagnostic skills, clinical reasoning and patient-centered care, and apply it practically. Therefore, proper education and inclusion in the formal curriculum are recommended with regard to the educational and cultural background and the use of a narrative approach along with medical evidence and facts.