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Healthcare’S Responsibility To Care: The Call To Support Both Patients And Their Families Through Illness, Madeline Merwin

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The contemporary healthcare institution operates on the philosophy of patient-centered care [PCC], growing from the medical culture of the past: care centered around an omniscient provider, defining the patient by their illness versus their identities. While this widely practiced philosophy succeeds in meeting the chief complaint and needs of a patient, it neglects to care for the patient in the context of his or her broader life constituents: the family and loved ones. Health care providers and their institutions are stopping short of adequate, all-encompassing healthcare when the family is not regarded as an equal member of the care team. …