Medical Students’ Perception of Narrative Medicine: A Case Report

Abstract

This study explores the perception of Narrative Medicine (MN) among medical students at the University of Siena, Italy, where this discipline is mandatory. Literature shows a low number of studies on the role of this subject in medical education (Palla et al. 2024), despite the increasing importance of narrative research both in seeking meaning coherence in illness experiences and in treatments and coping strategies to face clinical uncertainty (Charon 2001; Greenhalgh 2016). As part of a broader research program (Tuscany Health Ecosystem – THE – project), an online questionnaire on the perception of NM was designed and administered to students in Medicine and Surgery attending the mandatory course on Narrative Medicine at the University of Siena. The answers were examined applying descriptive statistics and Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006; 2022). Moreover, the students’ anonymized comments on topics discussed during the NM course were collected into a text corpus, processed by Sketch Engine software for the identification of lexical patterns and analyzed through thematic analysis. Adopting qualitative and quantitative methods and drawing on multiple data sources, triangulation yielded three main themes representing the participants’ perception of NM. While better diagnoses and a human approach to care emerge as tenets of NM on which students agree, awareness of the patients’ priorities and of NM benefits for the physicians’ emotional balance could be increased (potential). At the same time, students are willing to attend more NM courses and experience this approach at a more practical level, also because they recognize that the NM model is hardly compatible with the current standards of healthcare management. This study involved a small population of medical students, but it may be extended to a larger number of respondents from other universities offering NM courses, providing healthcare managers with new insights for the future design of medical education plans.