Evaluation of nurses' experiences with digital storytelling workshop: New way to engage, connect, and empower

AIM: The aim of this work is to evaluate nurses' experiences, barriers, and facilitators in participating in digital storytelling workshops BACKGROUND: Nurses face ever‐increasing demands and work time spent in isolation, leading to burnout. Storytelling—narrative skills of listening and creativity—may encourage meaningful connections with others, especially during the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, evaluation of the user experiences of storytelling among nurses has been limited. METHOD: The methods used are semistructured individual interviews with 13 nurses from a public health nursing organization who participated in a 3‐day digital storytelling workshop in 2019. The interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed using NVivo12. RESULTS: All participants were women and half were white. Healing, human connection, and nursing pedagogy were the three main themes. Participants highlighted the organizational support in providing a safe and dedicated “space” for nurses' well‐being. They also expressed desire and willingness to participate in additional workshops outside of work hours. CONCLUSION: Further studies using a larger sample are needed to examine the scalability and efficacy of storytelling at work. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurses rated storytelling positively and suggested a brief version to be incorporated into nursing practice. Establishing the culture of organizational support and psychological safety was identified as the necessary antecedents.