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Review
. 2020 Dec;30(14):2303-2315.
doi: 10.1177/1049732320951145. Epub 2020 Sep 13.

Gratitude in Health Care: A Meta-narrative Review

Giskin Day  1   2 , Glenn Robert  1 , Anne Marie Rafferty  1
Affiliations
Review

Gratitude in Health Care: A Meta-narrative Review

Giskin Day et al. Qual Health Res. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Research into gratitude as a significant sociological and psychological phenomenon has proliferated in the past two decades. However, there is little consensus on how it should be conceptualized or investigated empirically. We present a meta-narrative review that focuses on gratitude in health care, with an emphasis on research exploring interpersonal experiences in the context of care provision. Six meta-narratives from literatures across the humanities, sciences, and medicine are identified, contextualized, and discussed: gratitude as social capital; gifts; care ethics; benefits of gratitude; gratitude and staff well-being; and gratitude as an indicator of quality of care. Meta-narrative review was a valuable framework for making sense of theoretical antecedents and findings in this developing area of research. We conclude that greater attention needs to be given to what constitutes "evidence" in gratitude research and call for qualitative studies to better understand and shape the role and implications of gratitude in health care.

Keywords: gratitude; health care; meta-narrative review; psychology; qualitative.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure1.
Figure1.
The visual representation of the review
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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