Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, 6th Edition

CHAPTER 12‘People are Not Numbers to Crunch’: A Performance Narrative and Story Board

Christopher Johns and Otter Rose

Introduction

I have constructed two narratives where I have reflected from a personal as opposed to a professional experience. One concerned my mother’s death (Johns 2009) and the other accompanying Otter for an angiogram – the focus of this narrative. I hadn’t planned to reflect on either experience, let alone write a narrative. But, as events unfolded, a number of disquieting issues became apparent about the quality of care that aroused my inquiry and anxiety.

Performance narrative is a method of communicating insights, especially about current disturbing social issues, to both inform and engage others towards creating better worlds. Narrative performers intend to influence people to see the world differently, especially a world that has been normalised and rendered unproblematic (Goffman 1959). They intend to disturb or interrupt complacency and the taken‐for‐granted, to inspire reflection and provoke action. Denzin (2003) writes:

Such interruptions are meant to unsettle and challenge taken‐for‐granted assumptions concerning problematic issues in public life. They create a space for dialogue and questions, giving voice to positions previously silenced or ignored.

Writing as a receiver of healthcare, albeit as a ‘bystander’, gave me a different perspective about the reality of everyday clinical practice in contrast with my role as a healthcare practitioner ...