Appropriating and asserting power on inflammatory arthritis teams: A social network perspective

Background: Therapeutic interventions for people with inflammatory arthritis (IA) increasingly involve multidisciplinary teams and strive to foster patient-centred care and shared decision making. Participation in health-care decisions requires patients to assert themselves and negotiate power in encounters with clinicians; however, clinical contexts often afford less authority for patients than clinicians. This disadvantage may inhibit patients' involvement in their own health care.

Objective: To identify communication attributes, IA patients use to influence and negotiate their treatment with members of their health-care network.

Method: A qualitative social network approach was used to analyse data from a larger study that investigated IA patients' overall experiences of multidisciplinary care. Fourteen patients with IA attended individual semi-structured interviews. Researchers used thematic analysis to identify patterns of assertiveness and influence in the data.

Results: Participants experienced loss of identity, control and agency in addition to the physical symptoms of IA. However, they had a sense of personal responsibility for managing their health care. Perceptions of health-care team support enhanced patients' influence in treatment negotiations. Notably, there appeared to be an underlying tension between being empowered or disempowered.

Discussion and conclusions: The findings have significant implications for treatment decision communication approaches to IA care. A social network perspective may provide a pathway for clinicians to better understand the complexities of communication with their patients. This approach may reduce unequal power dynamics that occur within clinician/patient interactions and afford people with IA agency, control and affirmation of identity within their health-care network.