Quality of Life in Six Words: An Arts- and Narrative-based Approach for Centering Patient Voices in a Health Care Education Session

Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions (10/10/25) Neumann, Marie L.; Allen, Jessica Y.; Kakani, Swapna; et al.

A rare disease educational session at a medical conference employed a participatory arts- and narrative-based approach to enhance clinicians' understanding of patient and caregiver quality of life. By integrating stakeholder storytelling with empirical evidence and conceptual frameworks, the session fostered deeper empathy and insight. Prior to the event, 94 patient and caregiver perspectives were collected through six-word stories. Clinicians then used the stories to collaboratively create three visual artworks that captured the complexity and shared themes of these lived experiences. The session received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with many clinicians indicating it would influence their clinical practice, highlighting the potential of arts- and narrative-based methods to reflect patient voices in healthcare education.

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