PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Thomas R. Egnew
TI  - A Narrative Approach to Healing Chronic Illness
AID  - 10.1370/afm.2182
DP  - 2018 Mar 01
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 160--165
VI  - 16
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/160.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/160.full
SO  - Ann Fam Med2018 Mar 01; 16
AB  - Many clinicians may feel poorly prepared to manage patient suffering resulting from the travails of chronic illness. This essay explores the thesis that chronically and terminally ill patients can be holistically healed by transcending the suffering occasioned by the degradations of their illnesses. Suffering is conveyed as a story and clinicians can encourage healing by co-constructing patients’ illness stories. By addressing the inevitable existential conflicts uncovered in patients’ narratives and helping them edit their stories to promote acceptance and meaning, suffering can be transcended. This requires that clinicians be skilled in narrative medicine and open to engaging the patient’s existential concerns. By helping patients transcend their suffering, clinicians claim their heritage as healers.