Improving the quality of medical practice using phenomenological method — chances and difficulties
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/lie.32102Keywords:
phenomenology, evidence-based medicine, patient’s lived-experience, doctor’s attitude, biopsychosocial modelAbstract
Havi Carel, a modern advocate of the phenomenological approach, notes that phenomenology can play a very important role in development of medical treatment methods. However she thinks that the phenomenological approach is not known in the medical community. This method is rarely used in training aimed at improving the quality of medical practice. This article is focused on the questions of whether and where there is a “place” for phenomenology in medicine. The role of phenomenology is revealed especially when the phenomenological approach to the patient is compared with the scientific approach necessary in medicine. In the light of the latter, the patient is treated as a clinical case. Scientific facts are the basis for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Phenomenological method — in contrast — offers undoubted advantage, the ability to reach the patient’s experiences and the values that are present in the treatment. However, the possibility of introducing a phenomenological approach to medical practice remains a challenge. The aim of the article is to show that evidence-based medicine cannot be the only and comprehensive answer to a complex treatment situation. The philosophical perspective compensates for this deficiency, and its introduction is possible through the development of a phenomenological approach to those problems of medicine which are not descriptive by objective categories.
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