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- Title
Writing the patient down and out: the construal of the patient in medical certificates of disability.
- Authors
Aarseth, Guri; Natvig, Bård; Engebretsen, Eivind; Maagerø, Eva; Lie, Anne Helene Kveim
- Abstract
We analysed a set of medical certificates to investigate how GPs portray patients who seek disability benefits in Norway, focusing on patient centredness, agency and involvement. We performed a qualitative linguistic analysis of 33 medical certificates collected throughout Norway that were strategically selected based on the patients' sex, age and diagnosis. We found that patients were represented as passive carriers of symptoms, in whom agency was low, failed, conditional or non-existing, or as passive objects of the actions of impersonalised others. Conversely, symptoms were foregrounded as independent and powerful actors. The patient's experience of illness was sometimes reported, but the perspective of the GP tended to be doctor oriented, rather than patient centred. The policy of the social services, which emphasises patient involvement, patient centredness and work, rather than social benefits, was almost completely absent from these medical certificates. If medical certificates are to be a valid basis for decisions within the social services, we suggest that doctor paternalism in these documents must give way to considering the patient as an involved and co-responsible individual in the processes of disability assessment.
- Subjects
NORWAY; REPORT writing; DECISION making; DISABILITY insurance; LINGUISTICS; PEOPLE with disabilities; GENERAL practitioners; RESEARCH funding; SOCIAL workers; QUALITATIVE research; PATIENT-centered care
- Publication
Sociology of Health & Illness, 2016, Vol 38, Issue 8, p1379
- ISSN
0141-9889
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1467-9566.12481