A new study from China suggests that a narrative nursing approach can improve emotional well-being and recovery for patients undergoing laparoscopic radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer.
Researchers noted that conventional nursing primarily targets the disease, often overlooking patients’ emotional and humanistic needs. “The routine nursing model itself focuses on the disease but lacks more humanistic care, making it difficult to meet the actual needs of patients,” they wrote. “The narrative nursing model not only focuses on the disease itself but also closely integrates it with humanistic care.”
Narrative nursing involves nurses actively listening to patients’ personal stories, helping them reinterpret their experiences with illness, and tailoring care to their individual needs.
The study enrolled 108 patients with resectable gastric cancer, randomly assigning them to either routine or narrative nursing groups. Researchers then compared postoperative recovery outcomes between the two groups.
Patients in the narrative nursing group reported lower pain scores between 12 and 96 hours after surgery, though differences were no longer significant by 120 hours. They also experienced faster first ambulation (1 day vs. 1.6 days) and shorter hospital stays (10 days vs. 11 days).
Emotional outcomes were similarly improved. Patients receiving narrative care showed lower anxiety and depression scores and reported higher satisfaction compared with those receiving routine nursing. The researchers concluded that narrative nursing is “significantly effective in alleviating patients’ negative emotions.”
The study acknowledged potential drawbacks: narrative nursing requires more time and may increase nurses’ workloads. However, researchers emphasized its value, noting that “through effective communication and humanistic care with nursing staff, the satisfaction of patients with nursing staff during hospitalization has been improved.”
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