Living with and teaching about HIV: Engaging nursing students through body mapping

Body mapping, an artistic method of narrating experiences alongside people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs), was used to educate first year nursing students about social and personal aspects of the illness, including stigma. Body mapping creates a safe space where individuals can discuss personal, emotional, cultural, political and socio-economic dimensions of their lives in relation to HIV/AIDS. The aim of this study is to understand how individuals from multiple perspectives experience body mapping as an educational tool, including a nursing student, an expert facilitator, a PHA and a course professor. The stories they live and tell motivate and inform the content of this study. We conducted three individual in-depth interviews with a student, a PHA and an expert facilitator on their experiences of participating in body mapping. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Field and observational notes were also collected and reflections have been incorporated in this paper. Three themes were derived from our analyses: 1) stock taking narratives, where body mapping serves as a mediator for reflecting, accessing and organizing past experiences; 2) transactional narratives where body mapping creates safe spaces within which relationships are created, and experiences are shared, and 3) give and take narratives that connote transformation of self as a result of participating in body mapping. In conclusion, the body mapping exercise as an educational tool is an opportunity to share experiences, and to learn about and to shift attitudes surrounding HIV/AIDS. Thus, body mapping can be a valuable tool for HIV education for first year nursing students.