In a new paper published by Philip Clark in the Journal of Interprofessional Care, he argues that health
and social care professionals are increasingly using narrative approaches to
focus on the patient and to communicate with each other. Both effective
interprofessional education (IPE) and practice (IPP) require recognizing
the various values and voices of different professions, how they relate
to the patient’s life story, and how they interact with each other at
the level of the healthcare team. Clark's article analyzes and integrates
the literature on narrative to explore: self-narrative as an expression
of one’s professional identity; the co-creation of the patient’s
narrative by the professional and the patient; and the interprofessional
multi-vocal narrative discourse as co-constructed by members of the
healthcare team. Using a narrative approach to thinking about
professional identity, provider–patient communication, and
interprofessional teamwork expands our thinking about both IPE and IPP
by providing new insights into the nature of professional practice based
on relationships to oneself, the patient, and others on the team. How
professionals define themselves, gather and present information from the
patient, and communicate as members of a clinical team all have
important dimensions that can be revealed by a narrative approach.
Implications and conclusions for the further development of the
narrative approach in IPE and IPP are offered.
For further information see: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13561820.2013.853652
