Those who are experiencing, or have experienced cancer, can provide significant insight from which we can learn about the experience of cancer. Whilst this expertise is used across a wide-range of settings, including in education, there is a significant lack of understanding as to how those of lived experience wish to use their stories when educating students.
This study explored how those with a lived experience of cancer would use their stories when delivering an oral narrative of their experience to students. 21 participants (6 male, 15 female), with a lived experience of cancer took part in semi-structured interviews. The results were completed using Covidence and presented by way of narrative synthesis. Topics of exploration included, but were not limited to, motivations for telling their story, the setting in which they wish to speak, themes of importance in their story, what they didn’t want to talk about, the outcomes they wanted for those hearing their story, and the support services needed to help them in delivering their stories.
The findings of this study provide support for how those with a lived experience of cancer would inform an approach to healthcare student education when given complete autonomy to the delivery and outcomes of sharing their stories. These findings are important in continuing to understand the needs and desires of those with lived experience, how to best utilise their stories, and how to support them as we continue to work towards partnerships that promote increasing engagement of those of lived experience of cancer to inform the education for students and patient care in the cancer space.