The Power of Digital Storytelling as a Culturally Relevant Health Promotion Tool

Abstract

Digital storytelling is an emergent method in health promotion. It addresses health inequities by combining technology with the voices of members of vulnerable, often underrepresented populations. The overall goal of this pilot project was to explore if digital storytelling could be a culturally relevant health promotion tool for Hispanics/Latinos to share their experiences with cancer, or other diseases. Promotores participated in a train-the-trainer workshop. Community members worked with trained promotores to create digital stories through community workshops.We conducted one-on-one interviews with digital story creators to elicit perspectives and assess their experience. One overarching theme among storytellers was the power of storytelling. Supporting sub-themes that emerged in the interviews were: (1) connection and communication, (2) lack of opportunities and barriers to telling stories, and (3) potential for disease prevention awareness and education. This study found digital storytelling to be culturally relevant for Hispanics/Latinos of Mexican origin. For these storytellers it was a uniquely valuable tool for sharing personal stories of overcoming or managing health issues. Participants found the digital story experience to be positive and beneficial. It provided a healing outlet to reflect on a difficult experience and find support within one's own community.

Participating in core outcome set development via Delphi surveys: qualitative interviews provide pointers to inform guidance

“…The most appropriate method or combination of methods is likely to depend on the population and health condition to which the COS will be relevant. The use of visual resources has been documented in other healthcare areas such as health promotion,29 patient education30 and nursing training 31. In COS, development demonstration videos of the Delphi survey enhanced participant retention to the study 9.…”

The technique of story-telling in thyroid diseases including surgery; useful or not

“…GIVING BAD NEWS, changing from curative to palliative care, managing pain, dealing with the family of the dying patient and accepting death are some of the most difficult aspects of palliative care. They are also difficult to teach since teachers and students are experienced at imparting and receiving factual knowledge but are at a relative loss when it comes to transferring the fate of patients in our profession [ 2 ].…”

“…Many important facets of palliative care such as morals and ethics, the importance of touch, and the impact of the provider-patient relationship, are not easily taught by conventional methods. Stories can provide an approach to subjects that might otherwise be uncomfortable, cause defensiveness in the learner, or be relegated to the optional curriculum because they are affective rather than cognitive [ [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] ].…”

“…Oral stories are vivid and memorable, with each story providing context meaning, and a rich source of personal associations that facts and data alone cannot convey. To be effective as tools for teaching values and attitudes, stories must match the needs of the learner with the topic by focusing on professionalization and or the patient-provider relationship, and they must be told at the teachable moment [ [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] ].…”

Educating Latinas about cervical cancer and HPV: a pilot randomized study

“…Another was a radionovela, that essentially used the same script as the fotonovela but in an oral radio script; this was done because Latinas in the Lower Yakima Valley receive much information from a local Spanishlanguage radio station [39,40]. The last was a digital story which has been shown to be important and valuable to this population [41]. Because all three strategies had been successfully used in other intervention projects in the Valley [42][43][44], we developed and assessed all three media strategies to determine which one was most effective in helping women understand the messages.…”