Experience(s) of the medical profession: A qualitative study using narrative facilitators

Physicians narratives are means to approach and comprehend their experiences. They reveal the practice of medicine, and inform about the physicians embedment in their work and the healthcare context. This study aimed to examine physicians experience by means of interviews based on narrative facilitators, which goal is to encourage storytelling and to support the narrative process. Core stories were elaborated on the key aspects that emerged from the analysis. Thirty-three physicians participated in the study. The findings showed a focus on the transformations of a profession, the need for physicians to adapt in terms of role and status, and their withstanding of conflicting projections from the public and patients. The institutional context was described as darkness in which physicians are moving. When reacting to the quotes from their peers, participants showed a variety of un-patterned stances with regard to different aspects of medicine and the medical profession. Findings also indicated that as narrators, physicians may have particular difficulties accessing their inner world. Disenchanted physicians are not beneficial, neither for the patient nor for the health care system, and their feeling of being worn out may do harm and is certainly negatively affecting themselves and their families.