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Narrative Inquiry: Online-First Articles

Applying narratology to nursing practice

The case of intensive care patient diaries

ORCID logo | University of Southern Denmark
ORCID logo | University of Southern Denmark | Odense University Hospital

This article presents an exercise in applied narratology within the context of intensive care nursing, specifically the writing of diaries by nurses for patients to fill in memory gaps and alleviate trauma. The article discusses narrative from three perspectives: (1) as nursing practice, resulting in patient diaries with narrative characteristics and purposes; (2) as analysis of this practice, in a study coupling narrative and nursing theory and practice; and (3) as the application of narratological concepts into practice through dialogues with nurses, with the aim of transferring insights gained from the analysis and enabling nurses’ reflection on their positions, practices and power as narrators for patients. The article argues that narratology can be operationalized for nursing work, and there are compelling reasons for why it should, which necessitate methodological reflexivity and mutual curiosity, trust, and learning, and considerations about how far the remit of the narratologist, as a non-expert, extends.

Keywords: applied narratology, second-person narration, nursing, intensive care, patient diaries, telling rights, narrative medicine
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The ICU patient diary as narrative practice
    • Background
    • The ICU diary
  • The construction of narrative and telling rights
    • Constructing a narrative
    • Telling rights and second-person narration
  • The ICU diary and narrative analysis
  • Towards an applied narratology
    • Can?: Making narratological methods available
    • “Should?”: Reflexivity and exchange
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 29 January 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.22032.maa
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