Patients’ feelings about patients

Abstract

The following study confounds one of the criticisms or concerns about practitioner research — that it can simply reinforce practitioners’ views and assumptions about patient care. The assumption that patients with similar disabilities will derive benefit from contact with each other is one that has long been made in health care, encouraged by movements which seek to value the patients’ experience, both within professions and in patient support agencies. This study was initiated by casual observations of events that occurred in practice which seemed to suggest that this was not necessarily the case, and so the researcher decided to investigate these observations in a more systematic way. What she found suggested that, in the case of this patient group at least, contact with others suffering similar health problems could be a frightening and demoralizing experience.