This editorial highlights the gap between clinical interaction theories and actual healthcare provider encounters, suggesting further examination of know-how.
This editorial introduces the first special issue of Communication & Medicine, guest-edited by Peräkylä, Ruusuvuori, and Vehviläinen. Quite aptly the special issue takes as its point of departure the yawning gap between professional theories of clinical interaction and what actually happens in a given encounter between clients/patients and their healthcare providers. Healthcare professionals—both within mainstream and alternative healthcare systems—rely on interactional ‘know-how’ in their routine conduct of everyday practice. It is this ‘know-how’—in addition to the ‘know-what’—that is in need of detailed description, comparison, and theorization.
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Srikant Sarangi (2005) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: