Patient-centred Communication

Discourse of In-home Medical Consultations for Older Adults

By (author) Kayo Kondo

Publication date:

12 August 2022

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781800415881

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the use of patient-/person-centred communication in providing healthcare for ageing populations through an ethnographic approach to physician in-home medical consultations in Tokyo, Japan, alongside interviews with physicians. It focuses on illustrating how linguistic dimensions of person-centred communication work by citing examples of case studies, as well as the sociocultural differences between the US, the UK, Japan and other societies in which person-centred communication models are employed. The author uses her own framework, which takes into account face and politeness theory, and makes recommendations for future training.

In an era of increased digitalisation and performance targets, this book directs us back to the quintessential site of healthcare delivery, namely interpersonal contact between doctors, patients and family members. Through fine-grained analyses of clinical encounters involving older patients, Kondo beautifully illustrates the delicate interactional labour involved in compassionate, patient-centred communication and care.