Patient-Physician Consultations Essay

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Role of Prescriptions for Communication and Satisfaction in Patient-Physician Consultations
Introduction:
The idea that physicians know the most appropriate treatment measures for patient sickness is outdated (Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain 1997), and patient participation in physician consultations is now heavily emphasized in treatment decision-making (Charles et al. 1997:830). However, there is a complexity to patient-physician relationships which is difficult to quantify in a single study, and for the purpose of this essay the function of prescriptions and medication will be critiqued in relation to patient-physician understanding in their interactions. Anthropological analyses of pharmaceuticals have focused on the sociocultural power and value of medications in the construction of illness narratives, which is argued to directly influence patient-physician relations (Iyer 2016:19). Studies which will be discussed in more detail in the following, have highlighted the value of shared decision-making in regards to the role prescriptions and medication serve in patient-physician consultations. While current physician education programs recognize contrasting patient perception and …show more content…

A critical concept in medical anthropology which concretely distinguishes the sickness experience is explanatory models of illness, which will be referred to in short as EM. Coined by Kleinman as the “notions about an episode of sickness and its treatment that are employed by all those engaged in the clinical process” (Kleinman 1980:105), EM is used to negotiate patient-physician understanding of illness narratives (Kleinman 1988:49) and identifies discrepancies which could create barriers in illness treatment. As a psychocultural experience, EM offers distinct explanations for disease causation, progression, and effective treatment strategies different from traditional biomedical practices (Ember et al.

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