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The Importance of Health Communication
The reason for knowing more about health communication is that your health is important. When you aren’t feeling well, where do you go? Most likely, you go to the doctor or another medical professional. Health professionals such as nurses, doctors, and dentists are there to help you feel better, look better, and lead a healthier lifestyle. However, these professionals also have a unique status in America. Because they are known as healers, we hold them in high regard. Sometimes you may hear about how doctors are perceived as "God-like" because they heal people. Could you imagine having that kind of skill? Unfortunately, because we hold doctors and other health professionals in such high regard we tend not to question decisions they make about our bodies and our health. We think things like, "They are the experts. Why should I challenge them?" This kind of thinking has led many people to become very passive not only about understanding their bodies, but also about participating in decisions about their health.
The issue of how to communicate with medical professionals is not often addressed directly in American society. For instance, rarely do parents talk with their kids about how to interact with health care professionals. More often, parents tell their children to "listen to the doctor, he knows best." In this way, parents promote passivity, gender stereotypes about physicians, and status difference, all of which inhibit open communication. Likewise, most of us probably had a health or physical education class, but these courses focus almost exclusively on the physical aspects of health and well-being, not on how to communicate with health care providers. The result is that most people know very little about effective communication with health care professionals. Doctor Talk is intended to help meet the need for education in health communication.
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