ABSTRACT
Interpretive approaches tend to take the position that communication occurs in social interaction as a part of larger social processes. From both the scientific and interpretive approaches, a common component of research design in provider-patient communication research is the recording of actual healthcare encounters. Below, the authors explain how recording healthcare encounters can be used in both naturalistic and interventional research designs. The work on physician communication training also takes an intervention approach, and the authors will be discussing that work more later in the chapter. Heritage et al. however, successfully blended scientific and interpretive approaches to show the difference one word can make during a medical visit on patient participation. This study has important implications for communication skills training for providers because it demonstrates how the appropriate word at a crucial point in the visit leads to increased patient participation without adding to the length of the visit overall.
