IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v277y2021ics0277953621002367.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The puzzle of therapeutic emplotment: creating a shared clinical plot through interprofessional interaction in biopsychosocial pain rehabilitation

Author

Listed:
  • Battin, Gudrun Songøygard
  • Romsland, Grace Inga
  • Christiansen, Bjørg

Abstract

Interprofessional collaboration is increasingly encouraged and studied. However, there remains a need to broaden the understanding of professionals' contributions through their day-to-day interactions to minimize the impact of professional boundaries that evoke gaps in patient care. Drawing upon narrative theory emphasizing therapeutic emplotment, this ethnographic study explores how professionals contribute to interprofessional collaboration through social interactions during teamwork. Data collection was undertaken in a biopsychosocial pain rehabilitation ward in a hospital in Norway in 2016, and included participant observation of the ward-based work of two teams, and interviews with professionals from six professions (12) and patients (7). Formal and informal interprofessional interactions and patient encounters were observed. The study found that through interactions, the professionals' shared their understandings across all professions about the successfulness of their own work and of what outsider professionals were doing incorrectly when addressing patients from a biomedical approach. Imbued in these interactions were the pieces of an implicit shared clinical plot for their patients’ journeys through rehabilitation and life afterwards. We argue that creating the shared clinical plot enhances conciliation across professions and interpersonal motivation to carry out the work. A struggle between perspectives in interprofessional collaboration should not be prematurely interpreted as an obstruction to collaboration, since the struggle can imbue essential narrative work. This extends the theoretical study of therapeutic emplotment as a central motivational process in interprofessional collaboration in teams.

Suggested Citation

  • Battin, Gudrun Songøygard & Romsland, Grace Inga & Christiansen, Bjørg, 2021. "The puzzle of therapeutic emplotment: creating a shared clinical plot through interprofessional interaction in biopsychosocial pain rehabilitation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:277:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621002367
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621002367
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113904?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Del Vecchio Good, Mary-Jo & Munakata, Tseunetsugu & Kobayashi, Yasuki & Mattingly, Cheryl & Good, Byron J., 1994. "Oncology and narrative time," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 855-862, March.
    2. Good, Byron J. & Del Vecchio Good, Mary-Jo & Togan, Isenbike & Ilbars, Zafer & Güvener, A. & Gelisen, Ilker, 1994. "In the subjenctive mode: Epilepsy narratives in Turkey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 835-842, March.
    3. Powell, Alison E. & Davies, Huw T.O., 2012. "The struggle to improve patient care in the face of professional boundaries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 807-814.
    4. Allen, Davina, 2009. "From boundary concept to boundary object: The practice and politics of care pathway development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 354-361, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Standing, Holly & Patterson, Rebecca & Dalkin, Sonia & Exley, Catherine & Brittain, Katie, 2020. "A critical exploration of professional jurisdictions and role boundaries in inter-professional end-of-life care in the community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    2. Neiterman, Elena & HakemZadeh, Farimah & Zeytinoglu, Isik U. & Kaminska, Karolina & Oltean, Irina & Plenderleith, Jennifer & Lobb, Derek, 2024. "Navigating interprofessional boundaries: Midwifery students in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).
    3. Gifford, Rachel & Molleman, Eric & van der Vaart, Taco, 2024. "It's a jungle out there: Understanding physician payment and its role in group dynamics," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    4. Cupit, Caroline, 2022. "Public health in the making: Dietary innovators and their on-the-job sociology," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    5. Lefkowitz, Deborah, 2022. "Black boxes and information pathways: An actor-network theory approach to breast cancer survivorship care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    6. Evans, Sarah & Scarbrough, Harry, 2014. "Supporting knowledge translation through collaborative translational research initiatives: ‘Bridging’ versus ‘blurring’ boundary-spanning approaches in the UK CLAHRC initiative," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 119-127.
    7. Fleming, Mark D. & Safaeinili, Nadia & Knox, Margae & Hernandez, Elizabeth & Brewster, Amanda L., 2023. "Between health care and social services: Boundary objects and cross-sector collaboration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    8. Cohn, Simon & Dyson, Clare & Wessely, S., 2008. "Early accounts of Gulf War illness and the construction of narratives in UK service personnel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 1641-1649, December.
    9. Per Magnus Mæhle & Ingrid Kristine Small Hanto & Sigbjørn Smeland, 2020. "Practicing Integrated Care Pathways in Norwegian Hospitals: Coordination through Industrialized Standardization, Value Chains, and Quality Management or an Organizational Equivalent to Improvised Jazz," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-32, December.
    10. Helen Anderson & Yvonne Birks & Joy Adamson, 2020. "Exploring the relationship between nursing identity and advanced nursing practice: An ethnographic study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(7-8), pages 1195-1208, April.
    11. Callum J Gunn & Sevgi E & Teresa Finlay & Lidewij Eva & Teun Zuiderent-Jerak & Tjerk Jan Schuitmaker-Warnaar, 2023. "Co-design and its consequences: developing a shared patient engagement framework in the IMI-PARADIGM project," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(6), pages 1018-1028.
    12. Sanders, Caroline & Rogers, Anne & Gately, Claire & Kennedy, Anne, 2008. "Planning for end of life care within lay-led chronic illness self-management training: The significance of 'death awareness' and biographical context in participant accounts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 982-993, February.
    13. Wright, Sarah & Porteous, Mary & Stirling, Diane & Young, Oliver & Gourley, Charlie & Hallowell, Nina, 2019. "Negotiating jurisdictional boundaries in response to new genetic possibilities in breast cancer care: The creation of an ‘oncogenetic taskscape’," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 26-33.
    14. Hardman, Doug & Ongaro, Giulio, 2020. "Subjunctive medicine: A manifesto," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    15. Saario, Sirpa & Hall, Christopher & Peckover, Sue, 2012. "Inter-professional electronic documents and child health: A study of persisting non-electronic communication in the use of electronic documents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2207-2214.
    16. Sarradon-Eck, Aline & Sakoyan, Juliette & Desclaux, Alice & Mancini, Julien & Genre, Dominique & Julian-Reynier, Claire, 2012. ""They should take time": Disclosure of clinical trial results as part of a social relationship," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 873-882.
    17. Smith, Brett & Sparkes, Andrew C., 2005. "Men, sport, spinal cord injury, and narratives of hope," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 1095-1105, September.
    18. Wiig, Siri & Robert, Glenn & Anderson, Janet E. & Pietikainen, Elina & Reiman, Teemu & Macchi, Luigi & Aase, Karina, 2014. "Applying different quality and safety models in healthcare improvement work: Boundary objects and system thinking," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 134-144.
    19. Dumit, Joseph, 2006. "Illnesses you have to fight to get: Facts as forces in uncertain, emergent illnesses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 577-590, February.
    20. Liberati, Elisa Giulia & Gorli, Mara & Scaratti, Giuseppe, 2016. "Invisible walls within multidisciplinary teams: Disciplinary boundaries and their effects on integrated care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 31-39.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:277:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621002367. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.