Narrative Nursing - What Does it Mean to be a Professional Nurse

A nursing narrative note is a type of nursing documentation used to provide clear, detailed information about the patient. A narrative note is written in paragraph form and tells a story, if you will, about the patient, the care he is receiving, response to treatment, and any interventions or education provided. Narrative notes allow for more detailed descriptions of health conditions and concerns, which means you have greater freedom when it comes to painting a representative picture of a patient's health. You can communicate their thoughts and feelings, as well as your own professional judgments.

The format of the book will cover the Narrative Nursing workshop format that has been instituted over the years with nurses from a range of organizations. Each nurse will follow an outline of story-telling and select one meaningful nurse-patient, nurse-colleague, or nurse-leader encounter to present as a story to share with other nurses. Each chapter contains stories from nurses at all levels of development from the novice (student nurse) to the expert nurse and nurse leader.

The overall purpose is to illustrate, in a structured format, the impact of nursing care provided to individuals, families and communities. The story telling process that will be used includes the key techniques of storytelling: namely engaging the audience, describing the scene, building tension, focusing on what is important, keeping the flow logical, and making the story conclusive, particularly in light of the lessons learned from the story. Each story will be accompanied by analysis and commentary from the two primary authors, remarking on the meaningfulness of the story, lessons learned and lessons for other nurses.

Each story will be unique, but there will be conclusions drawn at the end of each story, and also there will be an introductory and final chapter written by the primary authors to introduce the value of story-telling and in the final chapter to synthesize lessons learned. A main feature of this book is that the stories will allow the reader to identify personal and professional moral and ethical principles confronted by clinical nurses and nurse leaders at all levels.

Joyce J. Fitzpatrick, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN, FNAP, FAANP(H) is Director of the Marian K. Shaughnessy Nurse Leadership Academy and Elizabeth Brooks Ford Professor of Nursing, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland Ohio where she was Dean from 1982 through 1997. She is also a Distinguished University Professor at CWRU. She earned a BSN (Georgetown University), an MS in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing (The Ohio State University), a PhD in Nursing (New York University), and an MBA (CWRU). In 1990, Dr. Fitzpatrick received an honorary doctorate, Doctor of Humane Letters, from Georgetown University. In 2011 she received an honorary doctorate, Doctor of Humane Letters, from the Frontier University of Nursing, and in 2020 she was appointed a Distinguished University Professor at CWRU.

Dr. Fitzpatrick is widely published in nursing and healthcare literature with over 400 publications, including more than 85 books. She has received the AJN Book of the Year Award 22 times. She served as co-editor of the Annual Review of Nursing Research series, vols. 1-26. She is editor of the classic Encyclopedia of Nursing Research, now in its 4th edition, and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Nursing Education. In 2021, with Dr. Mary Beth Modic, she published a children's book titled Luminaries of the Past: Stories of Fifty Extraordinary Nurses.

Peter Stoffan, DNP, MPA, RN, CCRN, NEA-BC, CPXP is a Nurse Leader currently residing in the New York City Greater Metro Area. Prior to Nursing, Peter's first degree is from Indiana University in Musical Theatre. After performing for multiple years in New York City and around the country, he decided to go back to school for Nursing at New York University. Peter loves the leadership role both on and off stage and enjoys blending the two dynamic talents in healthcare and leadership. After earning a Master in Public Administration degree from New York University, he earned his Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree at Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. His scholarly work focuses on the connection between hospital and environmental attributes and the health of nurse leaders.

Presently, he is the Magnet Program Director for NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. Prior to serving as a Magnet Program Director, Dr. Stoffan was the Corporate Director of Human Experience for Hackensack Meridian Health. Peter is the column editor of the Leadership Perspectives column for the Gastroenterology Nursing journal. Peter is also a published author of Tommy the Nurse - a children's book that highlights nursing and the importance of following our own passions. Additionally, Dr. Stoffan has articles published with American Nurse Journal and is a contributing author for a book written by Dr. Joyce Fitzpatrick and Dr. Mary Beth Modic titled, Luminaries of the Past: Stories of Fifty Extraordinary Nurses.