Stronger Together: Use of Storytelling at a Dietetics Conference to Promote Professional Collaboration.

During a Dietitians of Canada conference session (2015), 4 facilitators drew upon "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Alice) to engage participants in discussing the future of dietetic education. The aim was to feature Nova Scotia (NS) collaborative experiences as an example of dietetic education planning that could be implemented elsewhere. Three vignettes from the Alice story were chosen as metaphoric representations of dilemmas and assumptions commonly faced by dietetic educators. Story quotations and facilitator questions related to each vignette-guided discussion. The 3-part story-based arts approach of hearing stories, recognizing stories, and telling stories enabled participants to reflect on their own practice, relate to the challenges of others, and question conventional wisdom. Participants heard the Alice stories, recognized their experiences through the NS examples and had an opportunity to tell their own stories during discussions. Participants identified barriers to and strategies for collaborative planning in their own regions. Evaluation suggests most participants were positively engaged by the storytelling approach. Participants recommended that future offerings allow more time for orientation and for completion of planned activities. Bilingual programming should also be considered. Participants valued the unconventional approach to workshop engagement and planned to implement it in their own workplaces.