Clinical Narratives

Clinical Narratives are nurse stories of caring. At St. Joseph Hospital, clinical narratives are submitted to the Clinical Development Council as part of the Clinical Advancement process to move up the ladder from Clinical Nurse II to Clinical Nurse III (CN III) or Clinical Nurse IV (CN IV). As each proficient (CN III) and expert (CN IV) comes before the Clinical Development Council for advancement, they read their narrative aloud and have an opportunity to answer questions. The richness of their stories are shared.
The clinical narratives are also written by New Grads during the New Grad program. These narratives are submitted to the Clinical Development Council anonymously, and as we read them, we identify themes. The themes help to define nursing practice at St. Joseph Hospital. Over the years, the themes identified have opened up dialog and changes in our practice.
The Clinical Nurse IIs (CN II) are asked to write narratives during the months of July and August. The majority of RN’s at St. Joseph Hospital are CN IIs, but we tend to get fewer narratives from the CN IIs. In an attempt to encourage the CN IIs to write their stories, we are trying something new: Clinical Narrative Mentoring sessions. We are hoping that offering encouragement and 1:1 writing assistance will help to bring forth more nurse stories to share. I suppose the motivation to write a narrative is less for the CN IIs than the rest of the nurses, and as a consequence, we are missing hearing the voice of the majority of our wonderful nurses.