Critical friends: an investigation of shared narrative practice between education and nursing graduates

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a pilot research project that investigated the perceived educational value of sharing narrative practice amongst graduate students from the School of Education and the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Tasmania. During a semester the graduate students reflected upon and wrote about a ‘critical incident’ which had occurred during their recent practical experience. These narratives were exchanged with the graduate students in the other discipline in order for the lecturers to examine the perceived educational value of sharing narrative practice. Analyses of written responses and questionnaire results were framed within a social constructivist perspective and drew on notions of peer feedback, critical reflection and the value of shared stories. The findings revealed that the graduate students appeared to revert to discipline-specific behaviours within this cross-disciplinary context.

Keywords:

• critical incident
• narratives
• peer feedback
• reflection
• social constructivism
• graduate students
• cross-disciplinary

Notes

1. UTAS has identified given core attributes for its graduate students. These are: knowledge, communication skills, problem solving skills, global perspective and social responsibility.