Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114209

Linda Olson Keller, MS, APRN, BC, Office of Public Health Practice, Minnesota Department of Health, P. O. Box 64882, St Paul, MN 55164-0882, 651-296-9176, linda.keller@health.state.mn.us and Laura LaCroix, BS, MPH, Local Public Health Association of Minnesota, 125 Charles Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55103.

Storytelling is a powerful tool. Effective stories have the potential to engage audiences and advance the public health mission. However, very few public health professionals have training in storytelling. As part of a leadership project, a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow collaborated with the Local Public Health Association to sponsor a workshop that refined the storytelling skills of public health professionals. Over thirty health departments submitted a story of 750 –1000 words that illustrated how their health department made a significant difference in the health of its community. The stories covered the breadth of public health practice, including car seat programs, food inspections, smoking ordinances, newborn home visiting, flu clinics, TB testing in jails, rat abatement, and bullying prevention. Health department teams were introduced to the structure and qualities of a good story and the role of stories versus data. Health department teams received coaching and feedback on their stories and rewrote their stories several times during the daylong workshop. Almost every story changed dramatically. This presentation will describe the storytelling workshop, critically examine the strengths and weaknesses identified in an analysis of the stories (for example, an overall lack of protagonists and “emotional hooks”), illustrate how stories changed with several “before” and “after” examples, and describe how the resulting set of stories is being used for public health advocacy and social marketing. Copies of the stories will be available.

Learning Objectives:

• List the structure and qualities of an effective public health story
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses common in public health stories
• Identify one potential application of storytelling in a practice setting

Keywords: Communication, Social Marketing

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.