Paradox of Patient-Centered Care and the Implications for Patient Involvement in Continuing Professional Development

An investigation assessed the discursive construction of patient-centered care (PCC) and its ramifications for patient involvement in continuing professional development (CPD). Three discursive PCC constructions were explored. The first frames PCC as a disease intervention that emphasizes knowing and relating to patients to normalize lab test results. The second characterizes PCC in a confessional format that encourages patients to realize their personal responsibility for their health, through the perspective of physicians. The third framework is a disciplinary measure that exposes the possibility of using a checklist to rate the physician's competency in providing PCC. The authors observed that PCC may be engineered to paradoxically reinforce rather than invert conventional, provider-centric models. "Our results challenge educators to acknowledge the existence and effects of discourses when involving patients in the planning and delivery of CPD," they conclude.

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