The potential and pitfalls of narrative elicitation in person-centred care

Revitalized interest in narrative has informed some recent models of patient and person-centred care. Yet, scarce attention has been paid to how narrative elicitation is actually used in person-centred care practice and in which ways it is incorporated into clinical routine.

We aimed to identify facilitators and barriers for narrative elicitation and setting goals in a particular example of person-centred care practice (University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-centred Care, GPCC) where narrative elicitation is considered as a method of setting goals for the patient.

Observation of 14 admission interviews including narrative elicitation on an internal medicine ward in Sweden where person-centred care was implemented. Five focus group vignette-based interviews with nurses (n = 53) were conducted to assess confirmation of the emerging themes.

The inductive analysis resulted in three themes about the strategies to elicit patients' narratives: (a) Preparing for narrative elicitation, (b) Lingering in the patient's narrative, and (c) Co-creating, that is, the practitioner's and third parties' engagement in the patient's narration. Even though there were obstacles to eliciting narratives and setting lifeworld goals in a medical setting, narrative elicitation was often useful to turn general and medical goals into more specific and personal goals.

Narrative elicitation is neither a simple transition from traditional medical history taking nor a type of structured interview. It entails skills and strategies to be practiced. On the one hand, it revitalizes ethical considerations about clinical relationship building. On the other hand, it can help patients articulate lifeworld goals that are meaningful and important for themselves.