Learning narrative competence

Reflective writing courses at Uniarts Helsinki aim to foster narrative competence among social work and healthcare professionals. This research project investigates professionals’ assumptions of narrative competence, their experiences of course participation and evaluates how the learning objectives for the courses are met.

Introduction

Stories are at the heart of medicine, health and social work. Thus, the practice of social work and healthcare requires narrative competence, “the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others (Charon, 2001)”.

This research project presents the syllabus and rationale for a reflective writing course which aims to foster narrative competence among social work and healthcare professionals. The project seeks to shed light on how the course’s learning objectives are met; how participants understand narrative competence in relation to their work; and how participants perceive the relevance of taught skills before and after the course.

The “Learning narrative competence: Qualitative evaluation of social work and health care professionals’ experiences of participating in a reflective writing intervention” research project is funded by the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and The University of the Arts Helsinki.

Read the Privacy Notice (in Finnish) for the participants of this study.

Contact information for the project

Project name

Learning narrative competence: Qualitative evaluation of social work and health care professionals’ experiences of participating in a reflective writing intervention

Time

04/2022-12/2023

Funder

The Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and The University of the Arts Helsinki