Narrative medicine enables us to recognise the uniqueness of clinical experience and preserve the connection between illness and a person’s everyday life. Using patient stories at an organizational level requires an analytical unit that renders cases comparable while retaining the temporal sequence of experience. This article distinguishes between narrative, plot, and synplot as forms of knowledge that differ in terms of scale, intended audience, and mode of use. A narrative belongs to the narrator and preserves the context of individual experience. A plot reconstructs a recurring configuration of events by comparing multiple narrative trajectories. A synplot translates a plot into a concise formulation for organizational discussion, maintaining a traceable connection to the source materials. Real-time science (RTS) is defined as a working method involving a regularly updated corpus in which large language models are used to search for and compare fragments. Analytical conclusions are then verified by the researcher against the source materials. The proposed framework is presented through the composite case study of Regennova, which is based on constructed materials. The first example illustrates the connection between the clinical environment, trust, and the willingness to continue treatment, while the second example shows how experiential expertise is formed among relatives of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Translating these plots into synplots enables discussion of the organization of the patient journey and institutional arrangements for family participation in care. This case study demonstrates the proposed analytical framework, but does not constitute an empirical study of patients or a healthcare organization.
The transformation in the marriage and reproductive behavior of young people has become one of the most significant demographic trends of recent decades. This raises questions about whether family policy adequately reflects the changing life strategies of younger generations. This study aims to identify the characteristics of marriage and family attitudes among contemporary Kazakhstani university students and examine how these attitudes are changing in the context of traditional cultural norms and ongoing processes of individualization. The study is based on a cross-sectional quantitative survey of 1,000 students aged 17–23 from four Kazakhstani universities. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, Pearson’s chi-square test, and Cramer’s V in order to assess the differences between the groups of respondents. The findings suggest that Kazakhstani university students continue to value formal marriage, parenthood, and family life, but associate these aspirations with economic stability, personal preparedness and partnership-based family relationships. Most respondents support joint decision-making and an equal division of family responsibilities, while maintaining the expectation that men should bear greater financial responsibility for the family. Partner choice is characterized by a high level of acceptance of interethnic marriage, a declining importance of religious affiliation, and a strong preference for social compatibility between future spouses. Over 70 % of respondents consider economic uncertainty to be an important factor influencing decisions about family formation. The results suggest the emergence of a hybrid model of marriage and family attitudes, combining the enduring value of marriage, family, and parenthood with the changing conditions to achieve them. The study sheds light on individualization processes among contemporary Kazakhstani university students, demonstrating that these processes are not expressed through a rejection of family values, but rather through a transformation of the underlying mechanisms of decision-making regarding marriage and family formation. These findings could inform the development of policies for family and young people, with the aim of facilitating their transition to independent family life.
Narrative medicine is a rapidly developing interdisciplinary field integrating perspectives from medicine, the humanities and the social sciences. Despite its growing recognition, the concept of narrative medicine is still ambiguously defined and is interpreted differently across scholarly traditions. This article aims to clarify its conceptual content through a review of contemporary scholarship and a comparative analysis of existing theoretical approaches. The study is based on an analytical synthesis of research from the fields of narrative medicine, narrative studies, bioethics, and evidence-based medicine. It demonstrates that common interpretations that reduce narrative medicine to effective communication, a collection of medical narratives or a set of exemplary clinical practices only capture particular aspects of the approach, failing to account for its full conceptual scope. The article argues that narrative medicine’s distinctive feature lies in the contemporary understanding of narrative as a process of shared meaning-making about illness through dialogue between patients and healthcare professionals. The conceptual foundations of narrative medicine are clarified based on the literature review, the role of narrative competence as the principal mechanism for implementing its core principles is examined, and the significance of the narrative approach for the development of patient-centred healthcare is demonstrated. The author concludes that narrative medicine complements, rather than replaces, evidence-based medicine by incorporating patients’ subjective experiences into healthcare delivery, fostering practices that enhance trust, improve quality of care, and strengthen the interaction between patients and the healthcare system.
This article examines how young families in the Belgorod region perceive the conditions for forming a family and the accessibility of state support. The study is based on a secondary analysis of aggregated data from a regional sociological survey of young families conducted in 2024. The findings reveal that family, marriage, and childbearing are still highly valued, but the conditions for achieving these goals are viewed more cautiously. Awareness of support measures varies: federal and regional programs are more visible to respondents than municipal ones, while official sources of information are used less frequently than social media, online media and personal contacts. Experience of support measures is generally evaluated positively. However, a favorable attitude towards the existing system does not necessarily mean that the level of support is considered sufficient. Respondents aged 25–34, almost all of whom are parents, are particularly critical of the adequacy of support. The findings demonstrate that awareness of, actual use of, and subjective assessments of support measures represent distinct dimensions of their institutional accessibility, and these should not be treated as interchangeable indicators. The data provide insight into the social policy context in which young people form and pursue their family plans, but do not establish a direct causal relationship between state support and decisions concerning marriage or childbearing.
