Closing the Deal: The Role of Symptomatic Relief in Primary Care Treatment Discussions

• In Event: 564 - Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversational Analysis Paper Session. Studies of Healthcare Work

Abstract

How do primary care physicians tend to respond to patient resistance towards treatment recommendations? And what sorts of responses commonly engender full patient acceptance of the proposed treatment? This paper constitutes one portion of a larger study, examining the extra work physicians do in the service of closing the deal on treatment plans for a wide variety of common ailments. Drawing on over 200 video-recorded naturally occurring primary care treatment discussions, this paper examines one common ‘first line of defense’ among physicians in the pursuit of patient acceptance of a proposed treatment plan; the citation of symptomatic relief, where the physician describes the symptomatic relief the patient should expect to feel once taking the medication. The paper further examines the how patients treat these citations as valuable as they move towards acceptance or rejection of the treatment plan, while maintaining a clear orientation towards broader social norms relating to physician authority and patient obligations while in the ‘sick role’.

Author

• Clara Ann Blomgren Bergen, University of California-Los Angeles