Narrative Medicine and Patient Satisfaction : A Response to the Disconnect in Communication Between the Medical Community and the General Public

            Delving into the field of science, medicine, and technology in culture, this project compared how Allopathic, integrative and alternative medical practitioners communicate with their patients and collect patient satisfaction feedback. Furthermore, with the emergence of Narrative Medicine, Allopathic practitioners have the opportunity to receive training in patient communication, both verbal and written, which provides the opportunity to alleviate the palpable disconnect between the two parties that has been documented in prior research. The study was conducted in an effort to develop more effective ways of collecting patient satisfaction feedback and establishing enhanced support systems for physician communication based on patient’s perceptions of physician sensitivity and sincerity. Four patients, two Allopathic practitioners, and two CAM practitioners were interviewed regarding their unique experience with patient-practitioner communication; three of the four practitioners interviewed expressed being Narrative Medicine proponents. It was apparent that neither CAM practitioners nor Allopathic practitioners utilize traditional patient satisfaction/feedback questionnaires, and instead choose to orally discuss concerns. Furthermore, patients report CAM practices to be more personal and in-depth, fostering a greater personal and professional connection than traditional Allopathic practice. As such, the study concluded that medical training should utilize the personalized communication foundations present in CAM practices. There has been no clear discussion on the collection of patient-satisfaction feedback within Narrative Medicine, and thus, proponents should stray from traditional questionnaires utilized by the larger Allopathic medical community and instead, continue with an individualized communication approach of discussing patient concerns and preferences throughout the relationship. Prominent limitations include a small number of interviews. As such, future research should interview multiple practitioners and patients in different CAM and Allopathic disciplines with high geographic variation to expand our understanding.