Fundamentally almost everything we teach is about people and the things that go wrong with them. Rather than teach a topic in a vacuum, start with a story about a patient (real or fictional but realistic) and refer back to that patient during the lecture. For example, ask questions about how that patient might feel at a given time, ask or explain the symptoms the patient might exhibit, or ask what side effects that patient may experience from a medication. The effect here is two fold. First, people remember a story better than a series of disconnected facts. Second, you are applying the practice of chunking to your class by breaking up lecture with questions and discussion. Building in tension and emotion may make the lesson more memorable. Say the lecture is about trauma in pregnancy. Put up a picture of the “patient” to start the presentation. You can then say “This is Mary. She’s 26, a school teacher, and married to her partner Diane. They are expecting their first child in 2 months. Mary and her child are healthy and have received regular pre-natal care.” Next slide is black. You say “Mary was walking from her subway stop to her apartment when she is struck by a car fleeing police.” Consider playing some sirens in the background or video from a police pursuit (check YouTube). This lesson is no longer an abstract series of facts and diagrams, but rather the lives of a woman and child that hang in the balance. As you progress through class, provide updates about what is happening on scene. Such as, what Mary’s vital signs are, and so on. Students learn what changes happen in the body during pregnancy and what concerns they should have when applying those facts and concepts to Mary throughout the lecture.
Storytelling may be useful for continuing education, especially when introducing new research based best practices that contradict past treatment methodologies. A 2006 study found that when individuals have a strong emotional stake in information (as might a paramedic who is now being told the treatment they have provided to numerous patients over the years is in fact harmful) parts of their brain responsible for emotional reasoning are activated, rather than areas associated with cold reasoning1.
1) J Cogn Neurosci. 2006 Nov;18(11):1947-58.
Neural bases of motivated reasoning: an FMRI study of emotional constraints on partisan political judgment in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election.