Promoting Culturally Respectful Cancer Education Through Digital Storytelling

Abstract

Cancer is the leading cause of mortality among Alaska Native people. Over half of Alaska Native people live in rural communities where specially trained community members called Community Health Aides/Practitioners (CHA/Ps) provide health care. In response to CHA/Ps’ expressed desire to learn more about cancer, four 5-day cancer education and digital storytelling courses were provided in 2014. Throughout each course, participants explored cancer information, reflected on their personal experiences, and envisioned how they might apply their knowledge within their communities. Each course participant also created a personal and authentic digital story, a methodology increasingly embraced by Indigenous communities as a way to combine storytelling traditions with modern technology to promote both individual and community health. Opportunities to learn of CHA/Ps’ experiences with cancer and digital storytelling included a 3-page end-of-course written evaluation, a weekly story-showing log kept for 4 weeks post-course, a group teleconference held 1–2 weeks post-course, and a survey administered 6 months post-course. Participants described digital storytelling as a culturally respectful way to support cancer awareness and education. Participants described the process of creating digital stories as supporting knowledge acquisition, encouraging personal reflection, and sparking a desire to engage in cancer risk reduction activities for themselves and with their families and patients. As a result of creating a personalized digital story, CHA/Ps reported feeling differently about cancer, noting an increase in cancer knowledge and comfort to talk about cancer with clients and family. Indigenous digital stories have potential for broad use as a culturally appropriate health messaging tool.

Modern Technology and Its Use as Storytelling Communication Strategy in Public Health

“…Resulting digital stories are short, first person visual narratives that synthesize digital images, audio recordings of a first person, told story, music, and text to document personal experiences [10]. Digital storytelling combines the past methods of storytelling with the recent advances in technology and carries people through the past, present and future [11].…”

Digital storytelling in health professions education: a systematic review

“…All 16 studies explored and reported the perceived impact of digital storytelling on the learning of health professionals using one or two of the following data collection strategies: self-reported questionnaires, standardized questionnaires, focus groups, or interviews. Of these 16 studies, five (31.3%) focused exclusively on health professionals’ learning from the creation of their own digital stories as part of a formal educational experience [ 9 , 23 , 25 , 32 , 33 ]. In these five studies, digital storytelling positively impacted the health professionals’ learning.…”

“…In the creation of these stories, health professionals drew on their own personal experiences with cancer, as well as factual knowledge about the disease. They found that the creation experience, along with their abilities to share their digital stories with their family members and communities, motivated them to increase their own knowledge and understanding of cancer, as well as changed their attitudes towards cancer and their reactions to those who had experienced it [ 32 , 33 ]. Gazarian, Fernberg, and Sheehan [ 25 ], on the other hand, asked nursing students to create a digital story about an ethical concern encountered in practice.…”

“…Lastly, out of the 16 included studies, two (12.5%) focused on the perceived impact of digital storytelling on health professionals’ behaviours [ 32 , 33 ]. The authors of these studies surveyed participants after completing a cancer education digital storytelling course.…”

“…The authors of these studies surveyed participants after completing a cancer education digital storytelling course. The participants in both studies reported that the creation of their digital stories lead them to take better care of themselves, their patients, their families, or their communities in order to decrease cancer risks (e.g., quit smoking, have a screening exam, eat healthier, increase physical activity) [ 32 , 33 ].…”