Accompaniment and Bearing Witness: The Path Through Liminal Spaces in Healthcare.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2024

Identifier

DOI: 10.1177/10499091231201599

Abstract

Clinician-healers bear witness to suffering and accompany patients and families through the liminal spaces of an illness experience. Bearing witness to a patient's suffering is a form of attunement toward the ill or hospitalized person. Non-action, or wu wei, becomes illustrative of the empathy that develops as clinicians bear witness to the suffering of patients and families. This empathic response highlights the clinician's moral obligation to accompany their patients. Accompaniment is a form of "co-action" which orients the clinician to a mutual relationship with patients and families. Co-action incites new meaning-making within the liminal spaces and holds the potential to change the clinician's identity as practitioner and healer.

Journal Title

The American journal of hospice & palliative care

Volume

41

Issue

8

First Page

859

Last Page

862

MeSH Keywords

Humans; Empathy; Physician-Patient Relations; Professional-Family Relations; Family

Keywords

Co-action; accompaniment; bearing witness; liminality; non-action

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