Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
The patient's view of recovery: an emerging tool for empowerment through self-knowledge
Margaret G Stineman1, Ashley E Kurz, Deirdre Kelleher
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pennsylvania, USA. mstinema@mail.med.upenn.edu
Purpose:
To introduce Recovery Preference Exploration (RPE) as a new technique for studying the personal significance of being able to perform one type of functional activity over others. To determine if patients' concepts of function reflect the ADL, sphincter management, mobility and cognition (ASMC) domains established through the factor analyses of observed patient performance.
Methods:
RPE involves an adapted card sort procedure. Patients sorted 18 cards each listing a single functional skill such as eating, walking, and memory into subjectively meaningful groups of activities based on how they see those skills relating to one another in their daily lives. They then ordered the groups from most to least important. Recovery preferences were explored for 32 patients with disabilities resulting from neurological or other conditions undergoing inpatient rehabilitation in the USA.
Results:
The abilities to eat, bathe and toilet were the activities most frequently placed in the most valued pile. At times, the patient's card sorts mirrored the ASMC domains. At other times, patients grouped activities that tended to occur in a particular place or that were linked through cause and effect. Patients' narrative explanations reflected the uniqueness of their personal circumstances.
Conclusions:
RPE uncovers the life contexts that underlie patients' subjective beliefs about the meaning of being able to perform various types of activities. RPE might be applied in clinical practice and research to explore the idiosyncratic aspects of disability.
Related Concept Videos
Classification of Illness
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe and...
Introspection
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Patient-centered Care
Restorative Care
Self-Efficacy