The illness narratives of health managers: developing an analytical framework

Abstract

This paper examines the personal experience of illness and healthcare by health managers through their illness narratives. By synthesising a wider literature of illness narratives and health management, an analytical framework is presented, which considers the impact of illness narratives, comprising the logic of illness narratives, the actors involved and strategies, including the contexts in which those illness narratives are used and the impact they have. The framework incorporates conceptual and categorical approaches to the interactions between their narratives and health management. This framework advances understandings of illness narratives in healthcare: why this narrative was given in this way to this audience. However, as such narratives constitute crucial evidence about health services that is unobtainable elsewhere, the need for more research in this field is pressing. As data on such narratives are poorly collated, the paper calls for more research in this field and presents the analytical framework to shape such empirical inquiry.