Welcome to Week 3 of the series, where we explore how nurse educators can use Pixar’s storytelling framework to improve their case studies and classroom activities.
If you missed the first few weeks, you can read the previous articles here:
Week 1 - Principle #1
Week 2 - Principle #2
Let's get started on #3!
Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
In screenwriting, a strong ending gives purpose to the hero’s journey and ensures the story has meaning. This principle is especially powerful in education because it helps create a focused narrative that leads students to the key takeaways or learning objectives. Having clear learning objectives enables you to craft the entire lesson to guide students toward that outcome.
To do this, start with the end in mind. Beyond the learning objectives (which could be considered an end), have a clear understanding of where your story is headed.
Work on the main character
Think about the endpoint for your main character - the patient. A rule of thumb is, wherever the patient ends up, start from the opposite of that. If the main character becomes a hero, they start off as a nobody. If the ending you want is a character in love and on an adventure, they should start off lonely and in a boring, rainy city.
🗺️ If you want your patient to be a confident teenager, managing their type 1 diabetes independently, start with them in the opposite mindset. Not only will this help you to identify the steps that the teen will need to take along the way, it also gives you a starting point.
Next, consider the exact learning objectives that you want for your activity. These cannot be vague, such as: Plan nursing care for a patient with congestive heart failure.
📍Instead, be specific. The student will:
- Compare daily intake and output values to measure net I&O
- Use daily weights to understand fluid balance
- Administer a diuretic safely using lab values and blood pressures
An effective ending doesn’t just summarize what was covered; it provides a resolution that ties the story's threads together in a satisfying way. In nursing education, this becomes more challenging because our patients do not always improve, and we do not always have happy endings. But no matter what type of ending you choose, the ultimate goal is to leave students with a clear understanding of the material and meet the learning objectives you set up.
Common mistakes
Crafting your ending first helps you avoid common pitfalls like wandering off-topic or overwhelming students with too many details. Trying to build a storyline “on the fly” without having a clear ending is more complex, gets the writer sidetracked with unclear ideas, and creates unused material that may have to be deleted because it doesn’t fit in with the final story. To avoid this frustration and save time, use storytelling principle #3.
🗺️ When you know where you're going, ways to get there start becoming more obvious.
Want to see this in action?
The Pixar film, Inside Out is a great example of understanding the importance of a strong ending. The writers knew the final takeaway of the story - “Without sadness, Joy is nothing.” The end goal is for the audience to know both Joy and Sadness are valid emotions, not good or bad, but rather essential to a holistic, healthy well-being. These emotions together offer contrast, allowing us to see the lows of life are intimately connected to the high points.
Once the writers have this ending, it is much easier to build the story, and it sets up the micro-stories that support this ending over and over. From the beginning, Joy is trying to shove Sadness out of the control room, she is mean to her or tries to lock her away. But these conflicts are resolved when all of the emotions are present and participating. It is a great example of how a strong ending supports each lesson of the story.
AI Prompt for Principle #3
Similar to previous work in this series, below is an AI prompt to help you develop a strong ending to your content. Simply paste this prompt into an AI writing tool and change the [brackets] to your own information. If you tried the previous prompts, use the same chat so the AI can build on what it has already learned about your lesson. Give it a try and see what ideas it sparks!
🚨 A note about AI prompts: AI will not replace your nursing or teaching experience, so as always, use these alongside your own clinical judgment.
If you are not interested in using AI, no problem! Just use your knowledge, creative energy, and clinical expertise to go through the prompts on your own.
Try it out:
You can copy and paste this prompt into your AI tool of choice. Add your own information anywhere that you see [brackets].
Based on my course and learning objectives listed above, I need help crafting a strong ending for my case study. The ending should:
Provide a clear resolution to the patient scenario, highlighting key clinical decision-making moments. Reinforce the learning objectives listed above and ensure the case study ties back to these concepts. Prompt students to reflect on their critical thinking process and how they might apply what they’ve learned in real-world practice. Leave students with thought-provoking questions or scenarios to consider for further discussion. Please ensure the ending is concise, relevant, and emphasizes the most important lessons for my nursing students to take away.”
AI can be a great tool to kickstart your creativity and handle some of the more time-consuming aspects of creating new activities. You can help AI tools like ChatGPT to better align with your specific work by providing feedback and using clear prompts that identify your goals. So far, this series has shared three separate AI prompts (one for each storytelling principle) that you can use to create endless activities specific to your content. If you use these prompts in the same conversation, ChatGPT will "remember" both you and your course content, making the process smoother as you move forward.
Next week, we will move away from creating and crafting the story and into the mindset shifts that can help you become a better storyteller. See you then! 👋
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