Read two posts below and respond to the post in a substantive and constructive comment or observation (250-350 words each)
Post #1:
Insights:
A story is different than a narrative. Before these readings I had no idea that this was true. My understanding from this is that a story is the events that happened and the narrative is words that are used to talk about the event.
Cultural expectations can impact our representation of reality in a story, photograph, video etc. as shown in the example photo of a man going up the hill in our module. All perceptions of stories can be valid and real. The narrative is the same but perceptions are not. I think this is why our understanding of stories and meanings can vary so vastly. Our beliefs can change the way we see a photo/narrative. Since a narrative is a “representation” of an event then that means our realities can be variable.
Narrative interpretations are susceptible to our own judgements. In our visual narrative’s discussion, everyone took a photograph/image and created a unique narrative to make sense of the image. The images could have all been interpreted different ways. If we had all been given the same image, we would have all told different narratives. I was fascinated at the narratives my classmates were able to come up with.
Resource:
A resource that supports my 3rd insight listed above, regarding visual narratives, comes from the TV show “Perception”. This video clip is a great example of the idea presented in the W302 module that “a picture represents everything that it may reasonably resemble to individual viewers.” In this video clip one man saw beauty, one man saw narcissism, and the woman saw innocence in the art. This illustrates the idea that we make sense of images in different ways just like how we all made sense of our images in our discussion board. Bolero – Art Gallery | Perception | TNT – Bing video (Links to an external site.)
Application:
I think learning about the narrative of the story has a great impact on what nurse’s experience with patients. A patient’s story may be affected by the narrative which can result in different perceptions. Our textbook explains how the narrative cannot control what the reader/audience perceives about the story. I work as a postpartum nurse and I have mothers tell me about their birth experience and how it impacted them. Their personal experience and events that happened (their story) helps me determine how to assess their emotional and spiritual needs. The narrative the patient offers sets the tone for me. It also can show how perceptions are different. What my patient thinks was good, I may think was bad and scary. Overall, I think these insights aid in nurse to patient communication and understanding.
Post #2:
Insight #1: Narratives are built into the way we see the world and we have an innate propensity to narrativize what we see. There were many examples given in the the first chapter of the textbook, it was not just simply explained in text but examples of artwork were displayed that allowed me to see it for myself that I really did create a narrative even when the display was a still photo. Abbot suggests that some linguists suggest that “narrative is a ‘deep structure’ , a human capacity genetically hard-wired into our minds in the same way as our capacity for grammar” even suggesting that we may be born with it (Abbot, 2008).
Insight #2: Narrative is not only used to tell true stories but can also be used to deliver false information. Abbot says, “it is also important to note that narrative can be used to deliver false information; it can be used to keep us in the darkness and even encourage us to do things we should not do” (Abbot, p 12., 2008). I think in the age we live in when people often portray things in a way that is not true, it is important to keep this in mind. We must be careful in the narratives that our minds innately create.
Insight #3: Narrative is present everywhere. It can be in many forms, picture, movie, writing, spoken words, etc. It is the way that we make sense of the world and time and is enjoyed and shared by all people. Narratives are a big piece of how we perceive time (Narrative Occasion Video).
Resource: http://www.native-languages.org/legends.htm (Links to an external site.)
In a previous course, we spoke about the Native American people being left out of many data collections and really forgotten in general. I found this website that is a large collection of Native American narratives. I thought that this was fitting to my third insight that narrative is present everywhere and is shared by all people. Storytelling is especially important in preserving the history of the Native American people. Many of these myths and legends told are important to their religion sometimes even speaking of creation.
Application:
As a nurse, it is important that we provide care for not only patients physical being but also their mental, emotional, and spiritual selves. Being sensitive to patients cultural needs is very important. An example of this would be to provide a welcoming space for different forms of narratives to take place whether that be though song, dance, spoken work, written, or other. Throughout COVID and all the visitor restrictions we have had and still have at the hospitals, we had to get creative with video chats trying to allow some of this to happen. Remaining sensitive to the impact that this lack of visitation had/is still having on many of our patients is crucial. Of course these restrictions are in place for a reason, but we can try and do what we can to allow these narratives to still occur in any form possible.
