Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2025
Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Engaging in narrative relations in everyday work on a geriatric ward: A qualitative study with healthcare
Lisa Herulf Scholander1,2, Anne-Marie Boström2,3,4, Staffan Josephsson1
1Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
Aims And Objectives:
To explore healthcare professionals' experiences and reflections about narration in their everyday work.
Background:
The need for integrated and people-centred healthcare for older adults has highlighted the relevance of narration in healthcare practice. Although theoretical foundations vary, different frameworks building on narration have been proposed for translating person-centredness philosophies into practice. However, to understand how theoretical knowledge on narration can be adopted into clinical work, we need to learn how healthcare staff understand narration from their experiential knowledge and practice.
Design:
The research process followed guidelines from Constructivist Grounded Theory as described by Charmaz. The study adheres to the COREQ guidelines.
Methods:
Data collection entailed interprofessional focus groups discussions with healthcare staff (n = 31). Vignettes depicting realistic scenarios were used to encourage participants to reflect on clinical practice. Data were analysed via a constant comparative method.
Results:
One core theme arose from the analysis. The core theme showed how narration was a relational process that people engaged in to pursue and uphold several foundational qualities in healthcare practice presented in the following subthemes: preventing simplistic understandings of people and situations; supporting trustful relations; supporting continuity and coherence; and learning from coworkers. However, a minor theme raised awareness of narrative relations as a double-edged sword.
Conclusions:
By acknowledging the mutual and multifacetted nature of narration in everyday practice, this study shows how healthcare professionals' engagement in narrative relations may contribute to upholding several foundational qualities which resonate with philosophies of person-centredness in everyday healthcare practice.
Relevance To Clinical Practice:
Recognition of both the advantages and possible risks embedded in narrative relations in healthcare practice emphasises the obligation to collectively reflect on the repercussions of narrative relations in any local context.
Patient Or Public Contribution:
Healthcare professionals contributed by sharing their experiential knowledge and reflections on narration in practice.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:29Documentation in Long-Term and Home Healthcare Setting
Long-Term Care Facilities
01:21Interdisciplinary Care: The Health Care Team-I
Physicians
The physician's primary responsibility is to diagnose illness and direct the medical or surgical treatment of the condition. The authority to admit patients to a healthcare agency or institution and practice care within that setting is granted to physicians by the healthcare agency or institution...
01:18Interdisciplinary Care: The Health Care Team-II
Physical Therapist
A physical therapist (PT) aims to restore function or prevent additional impairment in a patient following an injury or disease. Massage, heat, cold, water, sonar waves, exercises, and electrical stimulation are some treatments used by PTs to treat...
01:27Ethical Issues
Ethical Concerns in Healthcare:
01:23Nurses' Legal Responsibilities II
Communication between nurses and...
01:15Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...