What is one expected outcome of narrative medicine in child life work?

• A. No impact on care planning.
• B. Improved articulation of experiences and strengthened family connection.
• C. Decreased family engagement.
• D. Only used for data collection.

Answer: (B)

Narrative medicine in child life focuses on listening to and honoring the stories of children and families, using storytelling to reveal what matters most to them and how illness and hospitalization feel from their perspective. This approach helps a child put hard experiences into words and gives families a way to share meaning, fears, hopes, and coping strategies with the care team. When children can articulate their experiences and families connect through shared storytelling, communication improves, trust deepens, and support can be tailored to what each family needs. This is why the expected outcome is improved articulation of experiences and strengthened family connection. The other options don’t fit because narrative medicine isn’t about reducing engagement, it’s not just data collection, and it does influence care planning by informing how to best support the child and family.