Narrative-based learning framework for healthcare professionals to improve citizen ageing and well-being

Worldwide, people are living longer, and the world’s population of people aged 65 years and older is predicted to increase substantially in the coming years. The increasing weight of the older population and the projection that an increasing number of older people will experience severe chronic illness and dependency goes in hand with an increasing heterogeneity among older people, which in turn has its reflection in terms of diversity of priorities of care. By drawing on literature in the fields of marketing, narrative pedagogy, and narrative medicine we suggest the application of an innovative narrative-based learning program, a potential TCR product, to help healthcare professionals to better cope with this heterogeneity of older people by learning about, interpreting and understanding their life worlds better and by integrating this information to co-create value with these older people.