Storytelling: An Effective Method for Teaching Complicated Concepts in Medicine

Introduction: Storytelling is one of the educational methods which can be employed without considering the learners' age, educational subject or learning level. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of storytelling and lecture methods in transferring the complicated concepts of medicine. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was carried out as two-groups, post-test only in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2005. Two groups, each including 46 medical students in clinical clerkship of dermato-logy ward were selected and three similar concepts in medicine were taught to both through storytelling or lecture methods. Then the two groups took post-test and the achieved results were compared using t-test by SPSS software. Results: The mean of the total scores achieved by the lecture group was 8.94±4.36 and by storytelling group was 14.84±3.47 out of the total score 20. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant. Conclusion: The impact of storytelling method in enhancing medical students' knowledge was significantly more than simple lecturing method. Therefore it is highly recommended to use this method for teaching rare and genetic diseases.