This Procedure Isn't My First and It Won't Be My Last: Narrative Explorations of How Pediatric Patients Make Sense of Difficult and Traumatic Medical Experiences and the Role that Medically Themed Media Play in that Process

Medical narratives add depth to aspects of communication and behavior that are often left as pages unturned. This ethnographical dissertation explored the experiences of 14 children undergoing craniofacial, neurological, or neurosurgical treatment to better understand how they make sense of their medical experiences, in addition to what their information needs are and what sources they access within their sense-making processes. This study's findings suggest that while multiple information sources exist, those with visual and narrative characteristics are most rhetorical opening the door for the consideration of medically themed media's usefulness.