The Challenges of Translating person-centred Care from Theory to Practice
Short description
Lessons to be Learnt from Research Projects within the University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-Centred Care (GPCC)
An array of different principles and rationalities are currently informing moves to increase patient involvement and empowerment within contemporary healthcare. For example, a central feature of new patterns of patient-centred care is the establishment of a therapeutic alliance between the patient and healthcare professionals implying shared responsibilities for care delivery. Building on such a vision of partnership and further emphasizing the biopsychosocial needs of the patient, the goal of person-centred care implies the expansion of innovative efforts to tailor care in relation to personal needs and individual experiences of suffering.
This project bringing together researchers from LETStudio, Sahlgrenska Academy and the University of Exeter Medical School engages in comparative analysis of the varying challenges encountered in the design and implementation of person-centred care across seven GPCC healthcare interventions. Using a combination of semi-structured interviews with involved researchers and doctoral students as well as focus group meetings and document analysis, the project aims to describe and analyse the specific working definitions of person-centred care informing the different interventions. Particular attention is being paid to how different professional contexts and socio-material settings shape the enactment of person-centred care. So moving between such fields as acute cardiac care, health promotion and preventative care and psychiatric care, the project is also concerned with identifying and analysing the variable barriers and facilitators impacting the delivery of person-centred care in different settings.
Researchers
Mark Elam, Department of Sociology and Work Science
Ulrika Bengtsson, Sahlgrenska Academy, The Life Context and Health Promotion
Doris Lydahl, Department of sociology and work science
Åsa Mäkitalo, Department of Education, communication and learning
Axel Wolf, Sahlgrenska Academy, Institute of Health and Care Sciences