Navigating plurality: A patient’sperspective on his care journey

Abstract

This illustrative case describes the experience of an 80-year-old man in the Ticino healthcare system, highlighting how communication, continuity, and interprofessionality determine the perceived quality of care. Through a semi-structured interview and thematic analysis followed by participant validation, key passages emerge: from the feeling of a “rocking boat” to engagement as a team member thanks to visible clinical direction; from monitoring “parameters” to requesting trajectories with verifiable objectives
and timelines. The plurality of professionals appears both salvific and disorienting. The case shows how focusing on relational and biographical dimensions, including extra-clinical narrative spaces, helps to support agency, trust, and coordination along the way.