Standardization meets stories: contrasting perspectives on the needs of frail individuals at a rehabilitation unit
Permanent link
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/6676Date
2013Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Abstract
Background: Repeated encounters over time enable general practitioners (GPs) to accumulate biomedical and
biographical knowledge about their patients. A growing body of evidence documenting the medical relevance of lifetime
experiences indicates that health personnel ought to appraise this type of knowledge and consider how to incorporate it into
their treatment of patients. In order to explore the interdisciplinary communication of such knowledge within Norwegian
health care, we conducted a research project at the interface between general practice and a nursing home.
Methods: In the present study, nine Norwegian GPs were each interviewed about one of their patients who had recently
been admitted to a nursing home for short-term rehabilitation. A successive interview conducted with each of these patients
aimed at both validating the GP’s information and exploring the patient’s life story. The GP’s treatment opinions and the
patient’s biographical information and treatment preferences were condensed into a biographical record presented to the
nursing home staff. The transcripts of the interviews and the institutional treatment measures were compared and analysed,
applying a phenomenological hermeneutical framework. In the present article, we compare and discuss: (1) the GPs’
specific recommendations for their patients; (2) the patients’ own wishes and perceived needs; and (3) if and how this
information was integrated into the institution’s interventions and priorities.
Results: Each GP made rehabilitation recommendations, which included statements regarding both the patient’s
personality and life circumstances. The nursing home staff individualized their selection of therapeutic interventions based
on defined standardized treatment approaches, without personalizing them.
Conclusion: We found that the institutional voice of medicine consistently tends to override the voice of the patient’s
lifeworld. Thus, despite the institution’s best intentions, their efforts to provide appropriate rehabilitation seem to have been
jeopardized to some extent.
Publisher
CoAction PublishingCitation
International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being 8(2013) s. 21498-Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
The following license file are associated with this item: