Pilnick2011

From emcawiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Pilnick2011
BibType ARTICLE
Key Pilnick2011
Author(s) Alison Pilnick, Robert Dingwall
Title On the remarkable persistence of asymmetry in doctor-patient interaction: A critical review
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Medical EMCA, Medical consultations, Discursive asymmetry
Publisher
Year 2011
Language English
City
Month
Journal Social Science & Medicine
Volume 72
Number 8
Pages 1374–1382
URL Link
DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.02.033
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

Download BibTex

Abstract

Doctor/patient interaction has been the object of various reform efforts in Western countries since the 1960s. It has consistently been depicted as enacting relationships of dominance or oppression. Most younger medical practitioners have received interaction skills training during their professional education, intended to encourage more equal forms of consultation behaviour. However, the evidence that ‘patient-centredness’ has a positive impact on health outcomes is at best mixed. At the same time, empirical studies of consultations point to the remarkable persistence of asymmetry. These two factors together suggest that asymmetry may have roots that are inaccessible to training programmes in talking practices. Illustrating our argument with findings from conversation analytic studies of doctor/patient interaction, we suggest that asymmetry lies at the heart of the medical enterprise: it is founded in what doctors are there for. As such, we argue that both critical and consumerist analysts and reformers have crucially misunderstood the role and nature of medicine.

Notes