Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by THORNQUIST, E
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by THORNQUIST, E
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Family Practice Vol. 9, No. 2, 195-202
© Oxford University Press 1992

research-article

Examination and Communication: A Study of First Encounters Between Patients and Physiotherapists

E THORNQUIST

Department of General Practice, University of Oslo Frederik Stangs gate 11/13, 0264 Oslo 2, Norway

What happens in first encounters between patients and physiotherapists? Videotaped encounters between two patients and their physiotherapists were analysed in depth to try to answer this question. It is advocated that attention must not be restricted to either clinical decision making or communication, but needs to be directed towards the relationship between communication and diagnostic approaches. In other words, in order to understand how a health problem is defined, the complexity and social organization of the process of interaction cannot be ignored.

Therapies are chosen and cooperation is built on such socially and professionally constructed basis, and it is suggested that the nature of this construction needs to be grasped. To this end, the author analyses both the therapists' examination and the communication between patient and therapist. Focus is thereby shifted from the ‘pure’ diagnostic activity to the frame of reference underlying it. The analysis demonstrates differences in the two therapists' practice from the very moment patient and therapist greet one another till they say farewell. The therapists' actions mirror the dissimilar conceptual frameworks underlying their practice, and the therapists' conceptual lenses therefore need to be scrutinized further.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.