Patient Participation, Authority, and Understanding : – A Case Study of Communication Patterns in a Geriatric Consultation when using a Medical Device

• Objectives: The object is to examine communication patterns in the discourse that emerges between a female geriatric patient and a pharmacist in the context of using an inhaler. This analysis is done in order to understand what clinicians (pharmacist) and a geriatric patient’ do when they construct institutional communication as a practice and how they do it in ways that support understanding medical information.Methods: This article is a qualitative case study from a project that video recorded forty (N=40) clinical consultations. The actual case was selected out since it is representative for use of material and visual information resources, applied by a pharmacist.Results: Benefits of the teach-back approach for a patient’s understanding of clinician advice are not based simply on the patient reinforcing behavior by repeating the clinician’s demonstration. Rather, the way that the patient’s discussion and manipulation of the inhaler produces a communication pattern that mitigates clinician control of topics and forms of expression.Conclusion: By combining verbal, visual and tactile actions, patients can join in consultations in a way that enhances their participation, authority and understanding.Practice implications: Many consultations can incorporate elder patients’ use of various information resources to improve their participation in treatment decisions.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

patient-clinician communication; clinical consultations; geriatric; patient participation; patient authority; patient-centered interaction

Geriatrics

Geriatrik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)