The aim of this study was to analyse how the patient is constructed and socially positioned in Swedish patient information. Corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis methodology was utilised on a sample of 56 online patient information texts about cancer containing a total of 126,711 words. The findings show an overarching discourse of informed consent guided by specific features to produce a patient norm that we name "the reasonable patient", who is receptive to arguments, emotionally restrained and makes decisions based on information. Through the discourse of informed consent, the norm of the reasonable patient emerges, apparently to even out the imbalance of power between patient and professional, but in reality, more likely to construct a patient who is easily controlled and managed. When the self-responsibility towards health is incorporated into the everyday domestic spaces via digital health technologies, the ideas and concepts of the patient role need to be reconsidered based on these new conditions. We conclude that it is important for nursing researchers to broaden the research on patients to include the relationship of power created through language. This study demonstrates both methodological and empirical possibilities to do so.
Keywords: cancer; discourse analysis; governmentality; information; nursing; patient.
© 2021 The Authors. Nursing Inquiry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.