Communication and decision making in neonatal intensive care: why narrative medicine matters

Abstract

Along with technical and scientific knowledge, it´s important to focus the care on the newborn and his family in a holistic and comprehensive approach. Skills and perspectives conferred by narrative medicine will allow doctors to recognize suffering, to interpret and be moved by the story of those who suffer and those who care for them. Metaphors reveal how we frame reality, how parents and physicians see and experience neonatal care from different points of view. Based on Kleinman categories of narratives, one can analyse the juxtaposed and the different views on the same reality by all the parties involved.