Challenges and Solutions: Narratives of Patient-Centered Care

Image of cover of Challenges and SolutionsEdited by Judith Belle Brown, Tanya Thornton and Moira Stewart, 2011

The foundation of patient-centered care is the patient-professional relationship. By exploring both the disease and patients’ unique experiences of illness, health care professionals take into consideration their individual needs as well as their emotional and physical concerns.

Using narrative to describe the experiences of patients and professionals, this book reveals the four interactive components of the patient-centered clinical method: exploring health, disease and illness; understanding the whole person; finding common ground; and enhancing the patient-doctor relationship. The concluding chapters illustrate ways in which all four components interact with and complement each other and can be used in unison to the immeasurable benefit of both patient and professional.

The stimulating narratives are all based on recent developments in the theoretical model of patient-centered clinical care.

This wide-ranging, thought-provoking text is highly relevant to a wide range of health care professionals as well as medical educators and health care students.