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Different perspectives of doctor and patient in communication.

Dulmen, A.M. van. Different perspectives of doctor and patient in communication. International Congress Series: 2002(1241), 243-248
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In the past decades, medical health care has gradually shifted its emphasis from the diasease to the patient. Presumably, this has resulted in a more egalitarian relationschip in which doctor and patient partcipate in balanced way in terms of their relative contribution as well as the content of their interaction. Still, a meeting between a patient and a doctor is a meeting between two extremes. Patient and doctor may have different roles, language, expectations and perspectives. These differences might prevent a balanced communication. The purpose of the present study was to examine in what respect the communication between doctor and patient could be considered balanced in terms of equality of their attention to affective, biomedical and psychosocial factors. Using findings from studies in different clinical setting, e.g. internal medicine (n=85), peadiatrics (n=846) and gynaecology (n= 526), its was furthermore examined whether this balance differend by setting. Results showed that, regardless of the nature of the clinical setting, doctor and patients showed almost the same amount of affectivity in their convensation. They differed remarkably, however, in their attention to biomedical and psychosocial issues. (aut. ref.)