Date of Award

Summer 2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

Committee Director

Rosaleen Keefe

Committee Member

David Metzger

Committee Member

Staci Defibaugh

Committee Member

Cathryn Molloy

Abstract

The current rates of provider burnout are at an all-time high, and our healthcare system is currently seeing numerous providers leave the system. The U.S. Surgeon General has deemed burnout rates at crisis levels, creating an exigency for research and work to help ameliorate this issue. One main issue at the heart of provider burnout is the idea of meaning and purpose in one’s professional life, and Functional Medicine methodology argues that it provides the means by which it can mitigate burnout while improving professional fulfillment and joy through deeper connections with patients. Their methodology is rooted in a concept called the “Therapeutic Partnership,” which works to address both provider and patient health. This dissertation provides a look at how Functional Medicine’s concept of the Therapeutic Partnership works to change current medical rhetorical paradigms by foregrounding a different understanding of the medical art and healing processes. At the heart of this study is the concept of techne, an ancient Greek rhetorical theory containing a nuanced concept of the nature of art. This project presents the Therapeutic Partnership as a case study illustrating how approaching medical practice as a rhetorical art can help improve provider burnout and patient care. Using a constructivist grounded theory methodology, 16 Functional Medicine providers were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. An important takeaway from this study is that conceiving of and practicing medicine as a techne can help mitigate and prevent burnout by aligning providers’ practices with their professional values. Additionally, medicine as a techne, as evidenced in the Therapeutic Partnership, uses rhetorical awareness and strategies to promote provider health, affording the opportunity for providers to embrace their own healing while improving their relationship with their profession and with their patients.

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DOI

10.25777/ayhc-ny75

ISBN

9798384455264

ORCID

0000-0003-2395-5531

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