Verbalization of Patient-Centered Approach (Based on Medical Consultations with Cancer Patients)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of doctor-patient verbal interaction, carried out in line with the patient-centered approach. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to identify the linguistic means used to organize the doctor-patient verbal interaction and to develop in the patient conscious desire to be involved in the treatment process. It is noted that giving the patient greater autonomy in the decision-making process regarding medical treatment methods, the doctor is expected to have the communication skills to structure the text of the conversation and to provide the information in a perception-friendly sequence. The object of the study is medical consultations with cancer patients. The purpose of the study is to identify structural components of the dialogues that include linguistic means aimed to verbalize the patient-centered approach. Authentic Russian-language medical consultations with low-risk prostate cancer patients served as the empirical material. The article presents a comparative analysis of approaches to structuring medical consultations based on Russian, English and German languages; identified structural components aimed to inform the patient in accordance with the patient-centered approach, and the examples of their verbal design. The paper draws conclusions about the semantic and linguistic content of the structural components that help to attract the patient to conscious participation in communication and treatment.

Keywords

• doctor-patient verbal interaction
• patient-centered communication
• medical consultation
• linguistically adapted conversion analysis