Christine Dennis
The Nature of the Patient-Herbalist Relationship
Abstract
Background: The patient-practitioner relationship is an essential element, which influences key factors that affect health outcomes. Many different types of therapeutic relationships have been explored; however, the patient-herbalist relationship has not been studied before.
Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this study is to explore patients’ and herbalists' perceptions of what constitutes an ideal patient-herbalist relationship, including factors that enhance it or make it more difficult to achieve.
Methods: Data were collected via five semi-structured interviews with purposefully selected herbalists and ten with patients. The interviews were transcribed verbatim into written text and entered into a qualitative software program (Nvivo) for coding and analysis. Codes were established by two coders independently, through an iterative process to confirm/disconfirm themes that emerged. Analysis was performed throughout the data collection period allowing for necessary revisions as new issues emerged.
Findings: The relationship between herbalists and patients can best be described as a connected relationship. The caring and kind behaviour of the herbalists, as well as the helping intensions, and the creation of a healing environment facilitate the creation of this connection. Additionally, the characteristics of particular patients seem to facilitate development of this relationship. The key difference between herbalists’ relationships with their patients compared to relationships patients develop with other health care practitioners also seems to be related to this connection theme such as lack of time spent with patients, patients’ sense of not being listened to, as well as the environment.
Conclusion: The nature of the relationship between herbalists and their patients can best be expressed as a connected relationship, which was described as very different to other therapeutic relationships. This study has provided a new patient-practitioner relationship model, the Connective Model, that can be used to explore how best to facilitate a connected relationship and to investigate its impact on patient outcomes.
