Care vs. care: 'Biomedical' and 'holistic' worldviews of palliative care

IntroductionScarce information has been collected regarding how the construct of palliative care is conceptualised from the physicians' perspective.AimsThe purpose of this research was to explore and describe linguistically embedded components of the Biomedical and Holistic views of palliative care, drawn from interviews with New Zealand physicians.MethodThis paper reports on data from the first phase of a larger mixed methods study of palliative care management within one acute hospital in New Zealand. Employing data from 7 physicians interviews word-use patterns [in discussing palliative care issues] are explored within the context of one urban hospital, using a combination of multidimensional scaling and linguistic interpretive analysis.ResultsThe components of the two worldviews of palliative care are outlined, highlighting the tension that exists between a Holistic worldview focused on social connectedness and “total care” of a person, and a Biomedical worldview focused on control and mastery of disease. Profiles are constructed of the salient features differentiating Holistic and Bio-medical worldviews.ConclusionPhysicians who habitually organise their knowledge and perceptions of clinical reality according to each of these two worldviews (bio-medical, holistic), appear to be having distinctly different experiences of their clinical reality - as reflected linguistically in how they describe it.