PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Polly Mitchell
AU  - Alan Cribb
AU  - Vikki Entwistle
TI  - A wide vocabulary for person-centred care
AID  - 10.7861/fhj.2022-0096
DP  - 2023 Feb 03
TA  - Future Healthcare Journal
PG  - fhj.2022-0096
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2023/02/03/fhj.2022-0096.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2023/02/03/fhj.2022-0096.full
AB  - Many different words and phrases are used to describe healthcare that treats patients as people. Do terms such as ‘person centred’, ‘patient centred’, ‘people centred’ and ‘personalised’ mean broadly the same thing or do they refer to distinct concepts? Should we prefer one over the others? In this essay, we set out the value and limitations of some of the different terms used to describe what we broadly refer to as ‘person-centred care’. We offer a critical conceptual analysis of the most commonly used words and phrases in this domain, exploring how they differ from, and relate to, one another. We argue that there is value in retaining a wide vocabulary: the distinctive emphasis and connotations of different terms allow us to communicate about this multifaceted area of research and practice with nuance and context sensitivity.