How Nurses Can Facilitate Meaning-making and Dialogue

Book excerpt: In healthcare, nurses often have a great deal of contact with patients on a 24-hour basis. They are in a position to hear the patient’s stories not only while giving care, but also during more informal communication throughout the day. This puts them in a position to use their response to patients in a more conscious manner and realize therapeutic aims by exploiting narrative means in a methodological way. This book extensively describes how this can be accomplished, not only through a theoretical exposé, but also using case studies. In addition to this pragmatic focus, it explains how narrative relates to larger concepts such as self-management, shared decision making, recovery and person-centred care, and shows that narrative can be a vehicle to these desired outcomes. The book also considers organizational aspects of narrative-oriented healthcare by introducing a model in which narrative plays an important role. As such, it will allow nurses in the field to make a paradigmatic switch from a perspective dominated by delivery of care to one that is person-centred, recovery-oriented and dialogic in nature.