Narratives and communication in health care practice: What competences are relevant for tomorrow´s health care professionals to communicate about illness, life and death?

The article concerns the issue: How to deal with the increasing challenges of communication in the health care sector? On the one hand, it focuses on how to include the patient’s and relatives´ perspectives. On the other hand, it focuses on the existential/spiritual perspective which is now included in various official visions papers and recommendations. The main question is pedagogical: How do practitioners in the health sector i.e. in nursing deal with these perspectives? The materials are the Danish Health Board´s program of rehabilitation and palliative care, data from a focus group study, and data from published autobiographies. The analysis shows that challenges are centered on communication about existential and spiritual matters. The relationship between being professional, personal and private is focused on in the light of the concepts of empathy and epoché as well as in a discussion of a phenomenological approach. Finally, a teaching practice dealing with the challenges is outlined seeing education as an existential and relational activity.