Student Healthcare Providers' Illness Narratives: Impact on Family-Focused Care

<p>In this study, we interviewed 30 students training for three areas of healthcare: medicine, nursing, and medical family therapy (MedFT). Through grounded theory analysis of these interviews, we looked to understand how these providers connected their own experiences with illness to their clinical work, particularly in including patients’ family members in care. The majority of participants, and especially those in medicine and nursing disciplines, described a tension between their desire to connect with patients and families and their developing definition of professionalism. For others, the impact of students’ personal experiences with illness seemed to provide a different definition of professionalism, making these personal connections more purposeful. We found that students described four significant processes around a core category of defining professionalism: (1) facing discrepancies between ideals around being a healthcare provider and students’ lived experiences, (2) coping with the challenges of healthcare culture, (3) navigating relationships between own experiences with illness and patients’ experiences, and (4) attempting to connect more closely with patients and their families. Implications suggest that training programs across disciplines consider how to support self-of-the-provider reflection, relational perspectives of illness, and students’ abilities to connect with patients and include families in care.</p> <p>Keywords: medical family therapy, illness narratives, collaborative care, family-centered care.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Counseling and Family Sciences

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Lawson, Lindsey Ann

Contributors dc:contributor

• Knudson-Martin, Carmen
• Hernandez, Barbara Couden
• Oloo, Winetta Baker
• Williams-Reade, Jackie

• Counseling
• Marriage and Family Therapy and Counseling
• Medicine and Health Sciences
• Mental and Social Health
• Psychology
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Clinical Clerkship - Standards; Attitude of Health Personnel; Continuity of Patient Care; Patients - Psychology; Family Health; Health Knowledge; Physician-Patient Relations
• Medical Family Therapy; Illness Narratives; Collaborative Care; Family-Centered Care; Relational Perspectives of Illness

Statement dc:rights

• This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/301

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsrepository.llu.edu:etd-1294