Stories under construction: Exploring meaning-making on a geriatric ward.

Area of Science:

• Geriatric Medicine
• Sociology of Health
• Narrative Inquiry

Background:

• Meaning-making is crucial for patients and professionals in geriatric settings, often involving moral and existential issues.
• Narratives are vital for understanding subjective experiences of aging and can foster person-centred healthcare.
• Tensions exist between individualistic and relational narrative approaches in healthcare, impacting how older adults' stories are accessed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore narrative meaning-making processes in everyday geriatric ward practice.
• To examine the interplay between contextual conditions, person-centred care, and narrative meaning-making.
• To understand how narrative meaning-making unfolds in relation to person-centredness.

Main Methods:

• Ethnographic data collection within a geriatric ward setting.
• Application of narrative theory and interpretative methodology.
• Analysis of everyday situations to portray findings in narrative vignettes.

Main Results:

• Narrative meaning-making is an intersubjective and continuous practice embedded in mundane activities.
• Meaning-making involves multiple interconnected individuals whose processes influence each other.
• Everyday interactions offer significant, often neglected, opportunities for meaning-making and storytelling.

Conclusions:

• Narrative meaning-making is an ongoing, intersubjective process integral to geriatric care.
• Person-centred care can be enhanced by recognizing and utilizing the narrative potential within daily interactions.
• Attention to the spaces between traditional healthcare procedures can uncover valuable opportunities for partnership and meaning construction.