Elaborating, sharing, narrating: a narrative analysis of three approaches to health communication

Abstract

Communication, despite being considered a key aspect in medical practice, has not received the corresponding attention both on literature and medical training as has the technological and biomedical aspects. As a reaction to this context emerged fields of knowledge proposing to reflect and strengthen aspects of communication between the physician and the patient. In this article, we perform a narrative analysis of the literature of three of such approaches to communication in health: the Balint Groups, the Patient Centered Care and Narrative-Based Medicine. The study highlights the approximations and distances between these approaches, along with the recognition of the potency of each of them in the different contexts of medical practice.

Communication; Patient centered care; Balint groups; Narrative medicine