| This qualitative study employed a narrative research method to investigation the question, "What is the physician's existential experience of medicine?" A literature review was conducted and produced three primary areas relevant to the subject. These areas were defined as medical discourses, existential givens relevant to medicine, and physician's experiences of the existential givens. Twelve physicians from varying specialties in medicine and with varying levels of experience were interviewed to produce narrative material for analysis. This study utilized the analysis of narrative method, which examined the individual narratives around the existential givens: death, freedom-choice-responsibility, connection-isolation, and meaning. The existential given death included two major themes that were identified as forms of coping and expectations towards death. Three subthemes were identified for forms of coping with death, including approaches of coping through avoidance, accommodation, and addressing death. The existential given freedom-choice-responsibly included two major themes that were identified as thrownness in medicine and realizing freedom-choice-responsibility. The third existential given isolation-connection had two major themes that were identified as connections to peers and connections to patients. With regard to the final existential given, meaning, one major theme emerged as a finding across participants identified as meaning derived from helping others. Discussion on the findings of this study provides implications for practice and future areas of investigation. |
