I heard an interesting lecture today.\u00a0 It was about narrative analysis. I won\u2019t delve into detail about this qualitative analysis approach. Rather I would like to focus on the comment made by the professor who teaches medical students.\u00a0 He teaches \u2018narrative medicine\u2019.\u00a0 Narrative medicine occurs when a physician moves beyond simply attending to a patient\u2019s illness and listens to the patients\u2019 stories about their life and the meaning of illness to them. This process enriches the physician\/patient experience and improves care.\u00a0 This is a fairly new concept in the medical world, but is gaining favour worldwide and is informing medical education and practice.\u00a0 What struck me was that \u2018narrative medicine\u2019 is a description of what nursing has always been. Essentially, medicine is trying to be more like nursing!<\/p>\n
Nurses have always sought to know the patient\u2019s experience and perspective and create a plan of care that recognizes and incorporates each.\u00a0 So much so that people instinctively tell physicians their symptoms, but tell nurses their stories.\u00a0 When I became a nurse practitioner and took on some of the tasks that had traditionally been part of the domain of medicine, such as diagnosing and prescribing medications, I read articles where concerns were expressed that advanced practice nurses were transitioning into the medical model. Well\u2026that certainly didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0 I found that there was no way I could simply discard the \u2018nursing\u2019, holistic, patient-centered part of my professional identity.\u00a0 It had become second nature to me and is an expectation of the patients I see.<\/p>\n
I think nurses know this about the profession.\u00a0 The problem is that no one in the room today, other the professor (and me), understood this. Medicine as usual, offers the world a professional definition and the world responds.\u00a0 Nursing needs to move from critical self-reflection to offering a nursing practice narrative to the world.\u00a0 Something to easily recognize, build upon and offer legitimacy. Nursing expertise in engaging patients and incorporating their narrative into patient care needs to be recognized.<\/p>\n
Roberta Heale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I heard an interesting lecture today.\u00a0 It was about narrative analysis. I won\u2019t delve into detail about this qualitative analysis approach. Rather I would like to focus on the comment made by the professor who teaches medical students.\u00a0 He teaches \u2018narrative medicine\u2019.\u00a0 Narrative medicine occurs when a physician moves beyond simply attending to a patient\u2019s […]<\/p>\n