About seeing the person

A patient is always a person, but a person is not always a patient. 

When we come into contact with health and social care, we are patients, but we are of course so much more than that. If you get a picture of the patient as a person, you can also provide better healthcare, treatment and social care. What is it that can motivate the person to improve their health? How does the person live their life? What possibilities and challenges are there? One aspect of the patient narrative is understanding the patient’s perception of their condition. An equally important aspect is understanding the person outside of their pathological picture. 

Professionals often concentrate on the patient’s needs, what the person is suffering from, what the person is unable to do or what the person needs help with. This is certainly an important part of healthcare, treatment and social care, but understanding the person’s potential, resources and desires is also invaluable. For example, there may be personal qualities that strengthen the patient or a desire to be able to return to certain activities. There may be relatives who provide support or an active lifestyle that can facilitate recovery. 

Helping patients to highlight their abilities may also be fortifying and healing for them. It will become clearer to them how they can contribute to their healthcare, rehabilitation or social care. If all of the focus is on the professionals’ expertise, there is a risk of the patient not trusting their own abilities and becoming passive.

Patients may talk about their needs or resources, for example that they used to exercise a lot and want to get back into shape again as soon as possible. You may also observe needs and resources, for example whether there are relatives around and whether they are committed and supportive, or worried and uncomfortable in the situation. Sometimes there are qualities that you notice over time, like a patient showing incredible will-power and determination and fighting through challenges. It is clear what the patient is saying or what you are seeing, but you will often need to interpret and analyse. It is important to take your time and to document the patient narrative as soon as possible after all meetings with patients so that nothing important is lost.

When someone becomes ill or realises that they need to adapt their life, their priorities and relationships often change. Even when our health does not change, we all enter different stages of life where our needs, context, resources and motivations change. Consequently, the patient narrative must not be static and should instead be something to build on and develop together.