Write a discussion paper on Health Narrative.While most of us will not be health providers, in the sense of medical practitioners, we all experience health, health risks, and illness either personally or in our interpersonal networks. This written and oral assignment is about a particular health narrative and uses readings and course content to analyze that narrative. It is recommended that you write out your narrative, and then, you go through course content in the textbook, additional readings, and lecture materials to identify concepts that you can relate to and expound upon as they are brought up in the narrative. There are three major parts to this paper: 1) the written health narrative, 2) the analysis of the health narrative using course content and readings (cite at least 4 different scholarly sources in APA style), and 3) the description of best practices stemming from lessons learned that would enable you to better communicate in the future. To ensure that the paper is well-written, check off to make sure you have done the following: a) cover page in APA style followed by an abstract with key words, b) introductory paragraph, c) health narrative section, d) analysis section with citations, e) best practices section, f) concluding paragraph, and g) reference page (use at least 5 published sources from the class and/or health communication journal articles). The paper will be 4-5 complete pages in length (not counting the cover page and abstract page), formatted in APA style, and address the aforementioned sections. Prior to submitting your paper to the D2L Dropbox as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf, you should have the AARC Writing Desk proof read your work.
Your health narrative should follow the directions in the syllabus. Do not look at this set of instructions and disregard the syllabus.
If you need further clarification, I developed these additional instructions for students in a different semester.
Clarifications:
In your health narrative, a big portion of the paper will be your story. I encourage you to write your story first, and then go back and add the introductory paragraph. Until you have your story, you really cannot do anything else.
The story has to be related to health, but it could be a loved one’s health crisis or disease that has impacted you. Let me give you a few examples that students have used in the past.
narrative about a family member’s cancer diagnosis and treatment
narrative about communication with a physician that impacted health
narrative about a disease that you have had to learn to manage
narrative about a health crisis like a life-threatening car wreck
narrative about caring for a dying family member
narrative about adopting a health life-style change (like becoming gluten free)
Your story should come before the analysis. Following your story should come analysis that introduces terms and concepts from the class to bring into focus certain health communication terms and concepts through your narrative. For example, I could tell a health story about one of my son’s birth and his size impacting the birthing process resulting in temporary nerve damage in an arm/shoulder. After I tell the story, I may bring in concepts related to patient-provider communication, breaking bad news to patients, uncertainty and health outcomes, and Frank’s narrative types/categories. As I introduce these concepts, I would cite the textbook and relevant journal articles or books that allow me to give greater insight about the concept.
Toward the end of the paper, I would bring things to a close through a set of lessons learned or best practices. The idea here is to consider what practices from health communication could have improved communication and relationships during the experience of the health narrative. Also, maybe you experienced competent, functional communication that you would like to repeat in future health communication situations. Think of this section as lessons that you take away from blending your health narrative with concepts from the class.
I have pretty good example for you to see. A student from a health communication class took her health narrative essay (with a good bit of editing) and submitted it to the Intima. It was accepted for publication. Here is the link: Emma’s Article.
Make sure to follow APA style in the writing of your health narratives. As always, I am happy to look over drafts of papers. Send them to espradley@sfasu.edu as a Word attachment. I will get feedback to you.
Assessment:
Grading of paper out of 100 points will be assessed: 15% APA style, 25% Writing Style (fluency, coherency, storytelling, clarity, support, grammar, punctuation), and 50% Content (5 quality citations, application of course terms, narrative, lessons learned or best practices).
