Practical strategies for practising narrative-based medicine.

Family physicians have become intrigued by what Rita Charon has called narrative medicine and what her colleagues in the United Kingdom have called narrativebased primary care.1,2 My own experience in offering narrative workshops to doctors is that they agree with the principles, but wonder how they can realistically incorporate strategies into a busy office “without opening up a whole can of worms.” There are ways to improve your narrative competence—that is, your capacity to receive, interpret, co-construct, and bear witness to the stories your patients bring you. Here are some simple, practical strategies to try and then integrate into your doctoring style.