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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1473345
This article is part of the Research Topic Integrating Health Psychology in Practice: Enhancing Well-being and Improving Health Outcomes Across Diverse Contexts View all 3 articles

Patient Empowerment: A Critical Evaluation and Prescription for Behavioral Change

Provisionally accepted
Antonio J Varela Antonio J Varela 1,2*Michael J Gallamore Michael J Gallamore 3Noah R Hansen Noah R Hansen 3Dakota C Martin Dakota C Martin 3
  • 1 Arkansas, Greenwood, United States
  • 2 Physical Intelligence, Fort Smith, AR, United States
  • 3 Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The evolution of healthcare continues to display an incongruence between delivery and outcomes. Current healthcare paradigms for patient empowerment warrants analysis. A lacking operational application for and agree upon assessment of patient empowerment contributes to healthcare's incongruence. Interchangeable psychosocial concepts and specific patient contextual factors associated with health-related behavioral change have escaped an applicable definition of empowerment. The aim of this theoretical perspective review is to support a comprehensive and contextual understanding of patient empowerment that frames a definition for future consensus research.A theoretical perspective review of patient empowerment including interchangeable concepts and patient contextual factors such as personal suffering and resilience; self-determined meaning and purpose; and autonomy, competence, and self-efficacy are critically analyzed. This analysis builds on adjacent concepts including therapeutic alliance, communication, motivation, and trust. The inclusion of specific patient contextual factors that relate to behavioral change elevate the need to reinforce coping and self-management skills as mechanism for patient empowerment. Practice gaps for those experiencing chronic disease, pain, and mental health disorders in rehabilitation setting are specific populations who benefit from healthcare providers unifying the variables associated with patient empowerment.The review of associated concepts synthesized an actionable definition of patient empowerment that serves as a foundation for future research. Behavior related changes occur through the evolution in one's identity, perceptions, and abilities. Interventions that inspire autonomy, competence, and relatedness with a renewed sense of purpose establish resilience and self-efficacy. The totality of this inspired self-determined plan of care establishes the mechanisms required for behavioral change and sustainable transformation. The cumulative experience becomes patient empowerment.

    Keywords: autonomy, behavioral change, self-determination, patient empowerment, resilience, Self-efficacy Patient Empowerment: A Critical Evaluation and Prescription for Behavioral Change

    Received: 06 Aug 2024; Accepted: 09 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Varela, Gallamore, Hansen and Martin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Antonio J Varela, Arkansas, Greenwood, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.