Repairing Family Narratives

In this episode, Monica and Danica explore the concept of ‘narrative repair’ and how it relates to nursing. Monica shares nurses’ stories of how they engaged in ‘narrative repair’ with patients and their families to create meaningful memories and keepsakes (e.g., hand mold) as testimony to the child’s life after they died. Monica shares her experiences of vicarious trauma when bearing witness to the nurses’ stories, and Danica joins her in reflecting on strategies for navigating such experiences and conducting trauma-informed qualitative research.  

Content Warnings 

(18:18 – 19:26): Story of caregiving told with both humour and sadness  about doing legacy building activity with patient in anticipation of their death from cancer

(22:42 – 26:00): Story shared of caregiving that involved providing a good death for a patient and their family  

(30:53 – 32:02): Story shared of child dying  

References 

(03:11): Arthur Frank’s conceptualization of ‘narrative repair’  

Frank, A. (2013). The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics (2nd Edition ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.