Patient empowerment in theory and practice: polysemy or cacophony?

This paper examines how the term "empowerment" has been used in relation to the care and education of patients with chronic conditions over the past decade.

Fifty-five articles were analysed, using a qualitative method of thematic analysis.

Empowerment is more often defined according to some of its anticipated outcomes rather than to its very nature. However, because they do not respect the principle of self-determination, most anticipated outcomes and most evaluation criteria are not specific to empowerment. Concerning the process of empowerment, our analysis shows that (i) the educational objectives of an empowerment-based approach are not disease-specific, but concern the reinforcement or development of general psychosocial skills instead; (ii) empowering methods of education are necessarily patient-centred and based on experiential learning; and (iii) the provider-patient relationship needs to be continuous and self-involving on both sides.

Our analysis did not allow for the unfolding of a well-articulated theory on patient empowerment but revealed a number of guiding principles and values.

The goals and outcomes of patient empowerment should neither be predefined by the health-care professionals, nor restricted to some disease and treatment-related outcomes, but should be discussed and negotiated with every patient, according to his/her own particular situation and life priorities.