Personal meaning in relation to daily functioning of a patient in physical therapy practice: narratives of a patient, a family member, and physical therapist

Abstract

Purpose: To get insight into personal meaning of a person involved in a physical therapy intervention.

Methods: Mrs. A, a 76-year-old woman is referred to a physical therapist (PT) for assessment of functioning and training before total hip arthroplasty (THA). The patient, her daughter, and PT were asked to write a story about their daily life. Stories were analyzed according to the narrative scheme based on a method to find meaning in daily life, which consists of four phases: 1. Motivation; 2. Competences; 3. Performance; and 4. Evaluation.

Results: Mrs. A was mainly motivated by her will to do enjoyable social activities and stay independent. Although she tried her best to undertake activities (performance) that made her proud (evaluation), her pain and physical limitations were anti-competences that motivated her to attend healthcare. Although the PT seemed to be aware of personal participation goals, her main motivation was to improve and evaluate functions and activities. The daughter was motivated by good relationships and did not see herself as informal caregiver.

Conclusions: The narrative method was a valuable tool to clarify motivations, competences, and values in the process of creating personal meaning related to functioning. This knowledge could help caregivers in applying patient-centered goal-setting and treatment on a participation level.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Personal meaning of people’s functioning within their daily context can be clarified from daily life stories.

• This case report demonstrates that motivations and goals may differ between patient and therapist; the PT seems to focus on improving and evaluating functions and activities, while the patient seems to focus her motivations and personal meaning on participation.

• This approach may help in patient-centered goal-setting at the level of activities and participation.

Keywords:

• Rehabilitation
• patient-centered care
• total hip arthroplasty
• participation
• spirituality

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the patient, her daughter, and physical therapist for their contribution.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.