Abstract
Physicians and other care-givers need to recognize the various and often subtle ways that patients make initiatives, such as requesting medical interventions, in medical encounters. Prior research on patients' requests and physicians' responses has limited real-world relevance because it treats ‘requesting’ and ‘responding’ as straightforward, discretely codable categories. In this study, we use conversation analysis to investigate how a primary care patient delicately hints that an HIV test is warranted and how her physician recognizes (and responds to) her implicit request for this diagnostic test. Our findings provide an empirically grounded and detailed account of some of the subtle interactional dynamics involved in making and responding to medical requests. By documenting the diversity of patients' and physicians' practices, we will gain a more comprehensive understanding of patients' initiatives, physicians' responsiveness, and patient-centered behavior.
About the authors
Virginia Teas Gill is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociaology, Illinois State University. Her research focuses on physician–patient interaction, especially patients' explanations for illness and requests for medical interventions. She has also studied the interactional process of labeling in a clinic for childhood developmental disabilities.
Timothy Halkowski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, at the Milwaukee Clinical Campus of the University of Wisconsin Medical School. His research focuses on doctor–patient discussions of new symptom discoveries, tobacco and alcohol use, and patients' rejections of medical advice.
Felicia Roberts is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Purdue University. Her core interest concerns how contexts and identities are constituted through talk-in-interaction. She has focused primarily on physician–patient interactions, particularly within oncology settings. Currently she is analyzing the rhetorical practices of oncologists as they present cancer clinical trials as a treatment option to patients.
© Walter de Gruyter
