In face of the pain of the other – narratives of health care professionals in work meetings

Abstract

In this paper I examine the construction of suffering by an interdisciplinary group of health care professionals who work with child and adolescent victims of violence. For that, I analyze the narratives these professionals produce during their regular planning and case presentation meetings. Based on the notion of small and big stories, I was able to identify two suffering construction practices: the telling of small narratives, or episodes of suffering, which occur mostly in planning meetings when participants present and discuss the suffering generated by the professional practice itself, or as evidence supporting hypotheses and opinions concerning the overall functioning of the group; and the telling of big narratives, or trajectories of suffering, which are co-constructed in stages during meetings dedicated to case presentations, in which events are reviewed and future action is suggested. The analysis also revealed that these narratives function to maintain group cohesion, since the meetings are an optimal setting for telling and listening to stories. In this context, a classical movement of identity construction takes place, supported by the distinction between us – group members who know about violence – and them – non-members, other professionals who still have to learn about violence. Finally, the analysis shows how, in this interdisciplinary group, different types of professionals co-construct narratives of suffering. The fact that this group includes physicians, who have traditionally had the power to make decisions on their own, independently of other team members, might be associated with a change in the usual medical identity within contemporary organizations.

Key words: narrative, identity, interaction, health context, health care professional.