ABSTRACT
Whereas the health-care literature is replete with studies addressing women's unique health-care problems and the physician—female patient relationship (see, for example, Corea, 1977; Ehrenreich & English, 1978; Emerson, 1970; Fisher & Todd, 1986; Luker, 1976; Ruzek, 1978; Scull, 1980; Stromberg, 1982; Wallen, Waitzken, & Stoeckel, 1979), few studies have dealt specifically with the communication dimensions of such mundane women's health-care issues as contraceptive counseling and prescription, pregnancy testing and prenatal care, and, most importantly, because of its critical role in the early diagnosis of female reproductive cancers, the gynecologic exam. Interestingly, several studies in medical education and women's health journals report that the “interpersonal relationship” or the “communication skills” of the practitioner comprise an important dimension of the patient's and/or the physician's satisfaction with the gynecologic exam (Domar, 1985–1986; Fang, Hillard, Lindsay, & Underwood, 1984; Lesserman & Luke, 1982); yet these studies have neither described specifically the interaction between physician and patient in women's health-care contexts nor have ferreted out the actual interaction patterns that constitute these desired interpersonal/communication skills.
