Table 2 Benefits of storytelling

Greater psychological well-being [110, 111] through:

 • Reduced stress [111]

 • Improved destigmatization of condition [112,113,114,115,116]

 • Reduced burnout [117]

 • Improved validation [111]

Increased ability to attend to patients holistically [111, 114, 117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152] through:

 • Enhanced learning of empathy [111, 125, 127, 128, 135, 138, 145, 149, 150, 152,153,154,155,156,157,158,159,160,161,162,163,164,165,166]

 • Improved ability to understand, interpret, and engage with others [11, 19, 111, 114, 135, 155, 167,168,169,170,171,172,173]

 • Enhanced patient-centred care [111]

 • Enhanced building of cultural sensitivity and contextual considerations [114, 124, 130, 136, 140, 143, 170, 173,174,175,176,177,178,179,180,181,182]

 • Enhanced understanding of the patient’s context and concerns [30, 111, 117,118,119, 124, 125, 145,146,147, 170, 183, 184]

Enhanced physical well-being [111, 185] through:

 • Improved healing [186,187,188,189,190]

 • Improved symptom management [25, 28, 111, 191,192,193,194]

 • Higher provision of emotional and physical support [10, 111, 116, 132, 172, 195,196,197,198,199]

Improved clinical skills through:

 • Increased group interactions and attention in lessons [171, 200]

 • Enhanced critical thinking skills [157, 170, 182, 201, 202]

 • Improved framing of therapeutic plans [22, 33]

Improved individualized care through:

 • Enhanced shared perspectives [114, 135, 169, 171, 172, 197, 203,204,205,206,207,208,209,210,211,212,213,214,215,216,217]

 • Enhanced contextualization and personalization of care [151, 169, 194, 204, 206, 210, 212,213,214,215, 217,218,219,220,221,222,223]

Better physician emotional wellbeing through:

 • Improved ability to cope with stress and distress [12, 117, 131, 151, 152, 154, 180, 224,225,226,227,228,229]

 • Enhanced wellbeing [111, 114, 143, 168, 173, 201, 230]

 • Enhanced peer support [114, 146, 174, 195, 197, 229, 231,232,233,234]

 • Enhanced spiritual or existential support [235]

Championing of social justice [112, 114, 220] through:

 • Increased access to treatment [111, 112, 216, 236]

 • Improved patient advocacy [116, 183, 187, 195, 205, 220, 226, 237,238,239,240,241,242,243,244,245,246,247,248,249,250]

 • Improved provision of consent and information [251]

Advanced moral reasoning [114, 218, 252,253,254,255,256] through:

 • Enhanced learning of ethics [10, 112, 135, 151, 158, 252, 256,257,258,259,260,261]

Upgraded personal development through:

 • Enhanced creativity [22, 149, 170, 247, 256, 262,263,264]

 • Enhanced meaning making [11, 19, 22, 24,25,26,27,28,29, 173, 180, 182, 265,266,267,268]

 • Enhanced self-reflection [116, 135, 139, 158, 269,270,271,272]

 • Enhanced professional identity formation [139, 152, 157, 202, 241, 247, 273,274,275]

Enhanced development of professional common culture [139, 276] through:

 • Enhanced relationship building [19, 30, 111, 125, 136, 146, 148, 153, 155, 161, 192, 201, 205, 212, 271, 277,278,279,280]

 • Enhanced peer teaching [11, 19, 24,25,26,27,28,29, 128, 173, 182, 191]

 • Reduced hierarchy [12, 171, 281]

 • Enhanced collaborative interprofessional rapport [114, 139, 171, 174, 276]