Table 1.

A typology of narratives used in medical lectures

Narrative theme	Description	Examples	Dominant aspects of learning process
Clinical case narrative (hypothetical)	Narrative about a hypothetical “typical” clinical case	• a typical patient with a drug overdose in the Accident and Emergency department	Meaning-making Relevant context Engagement Memory Professional identity
Clinical case narrative (real)	Narrative about a real clinical case	• side effects the lecturer’s wife experienced after using opioids	Meaning-making Relevant context Engagement Memory Professional identity Promoting empathy/compassion
		• a lecturer’s experience of a friend’s mental illness
History of medicine [discovery]	Narrative telling story of important medical/scientific discovery	• story about the introduction of laudanum into the UK in the 1600’s	Meaning-making Relevant context Engagement Memory
History of medicine [social]	Narratives about historical society’s relationship with medicine	• recent abuse of Fentanyl patches in Canada	Meaning-making Relevant context Engagement Memory
		• how chlorpromazine revolutionised the treatment of schizophrenia
Patient experience narrative (distant)	A narrative about a patient’s experience of illness. The patient is not a patient of the lecturer.	• Story about patients who wake up every few minutes with sleep apnoea, using the analogy of having an alarm clock going off every few minutes	Promoting empathy/compassion Professional identity Memory
Professional autobiography	A narrative about lecturer’s own professional career	• why lecturer became interested in studying breathing during sleep	Professional identity Memory
Real world narrative (hypothetical)	Narrative relating basic science to real-world experience, relevant to audience but not a “real” story	• narrative explaining pain suppression pathways by referring to the experience of a sporting injury	Meaning-making Relevant context Engagement Promoting empathy/compassion
Scientific process narrative	Narrative about a natural process, and/or how science has manipulated it to its advantage [often use analogy or metaphor]	• narrative approach to describe a slide showing the sequence of steps involved in the brain inhibiting pain pathways	Relevant context Engagement Memory
Social impact of medicine	Narrative primarily about the social impact of medical science or medicine [contemporary]	• the drug Quetiapine and the financial implications of pharmaceutical marketing	Meaning-making Relevant context Engagement Memory