Listening To A Patient's Narrative Analysis

We, as human beings, have a deluded notion that life is clean-cut: one is born, lives and when we have aged a great deal, accomplished something to be proud of, we die. However, life is not like this, and like much in life, death may sneak up on us in the form of an accident, sudden sickness or a terminal illness shattering gossamer of hope that we will all follow the clean exit that we have been lead to believe. The rush to the end may leave one feeling unfulfilled and incomplete, never truly appreciating the life that they have lived. In response to this incomplete feeling, the concept of narrative health care was developed in order to give the patient a platform to share in their life to help them come to terms with their condition as well …show more content…
A narrative is an individual’s portrayal of their life and in narrating their life, they allow the doctors an entry into their lives and how they have changed. A humbling statement that was said during my listening to Ms. X’s narrative was her use of tenses to portray her identity before she was diagnosed to after she was diagnosed. She said ‘I am no longer the Ms. X I was, I hardly remember what she was like, I am now this Ms. X and this is my new normal’. This statement was incredibly humbling, as I had always assumed that an individual with a chronic illness saw this as a continuation of life but Ms. X showed me that some might view it as a ‘re-birth’. With a ‘re-birth’ an individual is able to deal with their illness in manner that may not be understood by the health care professional or even another patient with a chronic illness. This in itself showed how narratives allow health care professionals to join the patient in exploring ‘the stories they have about their lives and relationships, their effects, their meanings and the context in which they have been formed and authored’2 but most importantly how a patient’s relationship with themselves have changed. This notion looks more towards the psychosocial aspect of health care and address how the health care worker goes forward. An individual who has adopted a new identity may be more inclined to get treatment that is suited to their new identity rather than treatment that aims to re-live their past self. From this one can see that it is the health care professional’s duty to provide treatment to the narrative that defines the patient currently and in doing so upholding patient-centered