Narrative care: Unpacking pandemic paradoxes

Abstract

During the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, public health has issued three interrelated dominant narratives through social media and news outlets: First, to care for others, we must keep physically distant; second, we live in the same world and experience the same pandemic; and third, we will return to normal at some point. These narratives create complexities as they collide with the authors' everyday lives as nurses, educators, and women. This collision creates three paradoxes for us: (a) learning to care by creating physical distance, (b) a sense of togetherness erases inequities, and (c) returning to normal is possible. To inquire into these three paradoxes, we draw on our experiences with Ingrid, an older adult who requires in-home physical care, and Matthew, a man with multiple disabilities including severe oral dyspraxia and developmental delays. We outline how narrative care is a counterstory to the dominant narratives and enables us to find ways to live our lives within the paradoxes. Narrative care allows us, through attention to embodiment, liminality, and imagination, to create forward looking stories. Understanding narrative care within these paradoxes allows us to offer more complex understandings of the ways narrative care can be embodied in our, and others', lives.