title: Reading Ella: using literary patients to enhance nursing students' reflective thinking in the classroom.
abstract: This action research study was designed to explore, in-depth, how 70 senior nursing students experienced an assignment that involved reading and reflecting on a short story, Ella, and the educator's experience during the process. Four sources of data were collected: student reflections, field notes, a classroom process recording by an expert educator/observer, and a focus group interview. Four themes emerged: (1) student reflections revealed their inner, often hidden landscapes; (2) Ella prompted clarification of the past and/or triggered future projective thinking; (3) Ella clarified difficult-to-teach concepts; and (4) the interface between students' thoughts and teacher responses provided a platform of connectivity. I propose that reading well-written stories may enhance students' clinical reasoning skills and ethical comportment within the confines of a classroom. In addition, when students are introduced to literary patients like Ella, they can dwell with the characters at a more peaceful pace which, in itself, may encourage reflectivity.
authors: Shawn
authors: S
authors: Pohlman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001325:Autobiographies as Topic; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008093:Literature, Modern; D008297:Male; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D015146:Midwestern United States; D033262:Narration; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology*; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009859:Oncology Nursing; D011231:Preceptorship; D012929:Psychological Distance; D011932:Reading; D013850:Thinking; D014956:Writing; D055815:Young Adult