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The Narrative Nature of Clinical Reasoning
Abstract
Narrative reasoning is a central mode of clinical reasoning in occupational therapy. Therapists reason narratively when they are concerned with disability as an illness experience, that is, with how a physiological condition is affecting a person’s life. In this paper, narrative reasoning is contrasted with propositional reasoning, and two kinds of narrative thinking are examined. The first is the use of narrative as a mode of speech that can be contrasted with biomedical discourse, in which disability is framed as physical pathology. The second involves the creation rather than the telling of stories. Therapists try to “emplot” therapeutic encounters with patients, that is, to help create a therapeutic story that becomes a meaningful short story in the larger life story of the patient.
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“Evidence suggests that the most common medical error results from inadequate clinical reasoning [3, 9].”
From The virtual patient as a learning tool: a mixed quantitative qualitative study (2018) · cites this paper as [9]
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Items 201–300 of 316
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Kolehmainen, N., Francis, J., & McKee, L. (2008) · British Journal of Occupational Therapy · doi:10.1177/030802260807101202 · Cited by 5
“Similarly in occupational therapy, several authors have suggested that clinical expertise is based on experience-based knowledge (Mattingly 1991b, Paterson et al 2006).”
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“…therapists and addresses the stated gap that “[t]he clinical problems that are systematically most difficult for therapists are those that fall within the phenomenological domain, yet these have been given the least amount of attention in the education of therapists” (Mattingly, 1991, p. 985).”
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“Hierarchyintheoccupationaltherapytreatmentpro-cessseemstobelieclinicalreasoning[57,58]and client-centred, [55, 59] evidence-based practice [50].”
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“The narrative model of CR focuses mainly on understanding the patients’ experiences and subjective expressions of their story (Edwards and Richardson, 2008; Mattingly, 1991; Mattingly and Fleming, 2019).”
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“They pictured future images of who their patients could be thereby creating a ‘prospective treatment story’ (Mattingly, 1991, p. 1001).”
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“OTs try to structure therapy in a narrative way, as an unfolding story through ‘emplotment’ of the therapeutic encounters with patients [19].”
InfluentialTinè, P. (2021) · Current Anthropology · doi:10.1086/716551 · Cited by 3
“On the narrative approach to the self, see Peacock and Holland (1993), the edited work by Skinner, Pach, and Holland (1998), and McAdams (2019); in relation to healing narratives and the self, see the work by Mattingly (1991, 1998), Mattingly and Garro (2001), and Kleinman (1988).”
MethodA Podcast’s Effect on Empathy and Client-Centeredness in Occupational Therapy Students
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“As asserted by Mattingly (1991), "a narrative model of reasoning ... is fundamental to the thinking of [those in training to become] occupational therapists" (p. 998).”
BackgroundInfluentialLabovian Analysis of a Manager's Tale of Distress: “It All Worked Out”
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BackgroundPhysiotherapists' Perspectives on Professional Practice in Comparison to Occupational Therapists'.
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Honouring the Sacred in Childbirth: a Midwife's Stories of Women's Developing Sense of Self
Lennox, S. (2002) · doi:10.26686/wgtn.16920586.v1 · Cited by 3
““Narratives make sense of reality by linking the outward world of actions and events to the inner world of human intention and motivation” (Mattingly, 1991, p.999).”
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“…humain ne peut être ignorée dans les soins de santé, particulièrement en réadaptation en déficience physique, car elle est un facteur déterminant dans la façon de réagir de la personne lorsque celle-ci est confrontée à la maladie ou aux pertes de capacités (Howard & Howard, 1997; Mattingly, 1991).”
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Kohn, A. A. (2016) · Cited by 1
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A model for designing instructional narratives for adult learners: Connecting the dots
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The Meaning of Stroke in Everyday Life—a Comparative Case-Study of Two Persons
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Burke, J. P. (2004) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-18867-1_11
“…beschreiben sie detailliert die vielen Nuancen der ergotherapeutischen Praxis, u. a. ▬ eine Definition des Klinischen ReasoningProzesses (Mattingly 1991b), ▬ eine Sichtweise der Therapeutin als Problemlöserin mit drei unterschiedlichen Denk- oder Schlussfolgerungsstrategien, um…”
BackgroundComputer-supported diagnosis in psychiatry
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“The worker gives regular reflective letters to the family to aid learning and reflection in-between sessions which happens when people are working through a change process drawing on the storytelling method (Mattingly, 1991).”
BackgroundErzählungen in der (griechischen) Mathematik?
Asper, M. (2011) · edoc Publication server (Humboldt University of Berlin) · doi:10.18452/1747
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Acknowledging a Spiritual Dimension in
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Bridging that gap : occupational therapist experiences of client-centred practice
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From Artist to Writer to Reader and Back Again: The Odyssey of an Occupational Artist
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Modern happiness studies and “individual subjective wellbeing”
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Perils and Pitfalls of OT Research in a Foreign Country: A Reflection
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“(Monrouxe, Rees, Endacott, & Ternan, 2014), revise perspectives (Mattingly, 1991), and find meaning in both familiar (Jenstad & Donnelly, 2015) and unfamiliar contexts (Ekelman et al.”
BackgroundInfluentialIncertitude diagnostique et stratégie décisionnelle en clinique
Messer, L., Sibilia, J., & Myazhiom, A. C. L. (2017) · Revue du Rhumatisme · doi:10.1016/j.rhum.2017.10.021
The therapists' experience of alcohol addiction treatment – a qualitative study
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“La perte de rôle en raison d’une défi cience et l’incapacité d’interagir avec son environnement de façon significative peuvent également provoquer une crise spirituelle chez la personne (Howard & Howard, 1997; Mattingly, 1991).”
Clinical Decision-making Among Nursing Students: An Interpretive Study
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“The story often includes an unexpected twist, which left them feeling caught off guard, and facing the challenge of coping with the changes which required self-adjustment (Mattingly, 1991).”
Klinisch redeneren en dossiervoering
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Background"Tinha um livro de ginecologia dentro do seu útero": a narrativa de Isadora sobre sua histerectomia
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Paper Patients: When Documents Stand in for Patients
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“This is what Mattingly (1991b) described as “trying to understand a particular person’s experience”, putting an emphasis on “how the disease was experienced” subjectively, and attempting to “make sense of reality by linking the outward world of actions and events to the inner world of human…”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Mattingly, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Mattingly, Cheryl
- ORCID
- Mattingly, Cheryl
- Venue
- American Journal of Occupational Therapy
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1991-11
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 998-1005
- ISSN
- 0272-9490 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-7676
- OpenAlex
- W2141806496
- Cited by
- 319
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 20.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Occupational Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Therapy Practice and Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Medicine, History, and Philosophy
- Keywords
- narrative thinking, clinical reasoning, occupational therapy, propositional reasoning, biomedical discourse, emplotment, therapeutic stories, life stories, narrative therapy
- MeSH terms
- Clinical Competence, Communication, Creativity, Female, Humans, Imagination, Interprofessional Relations, Male, Occupational Therapy, Problem Solving, Professional-Patient Relations, Thinking
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