RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Narrative Approach to Healing Chronic Illness
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 160
OP 165
DO 10.1370/afm.2182
VO 16
IS 2
A1 Thomas R. Egnew
YR 2018
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/16/2/160.abstract
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.