Patient-Centred Care: A Review of the Concept

Abstract

The author reviews the development of the concept of patient-care and how doctors are changing their thinking about the type of care they render their patients. He starts with a historical perspective followed by a description of a parallel development, then, how this concept was re-discovered during this century and finally how it is new used in medical literature. The old medical model of specific responses and specific cures is just no longer adequate; there is n need for a patient-centred approach where the patient as n unique person in his complete environment is cared for.