Patient–Oncologist Interactions

Abstract

Oncology interviews are designed to diagnose and treat cancer as a complex disease defined by cellular degeneration. Left untreated, cancer is capable of progressive growth, excessive harm, and possible death. Recurrent tensions and trusting partnerships exist between clinicians and patients as lay persons. Medical experts rely on their authority to diagnose, treat, and minimize cancer health threats. Patients are typically not trained to understand technical cancer details yet can claim knowledge about bodily and subjective illness experiences. A primary goal of health communication research is to observe how clinicians enact medical authority and impacts on patient participation. Effectively addressing the emotional concerns and well‐being of cancer patients is also essential if positive clinical outcomes are to be achieved. Across phases of medical interviews, patients have been shown to be passive and defer to clinicians' pursuit of agendas. Yet, close examinations of oncology interviews reveal that cancer patients can proactively, directly and indirectly, align with or resist those agendas. A related and predominant cancer research focus has been on dying and death, including delivering and receiving bad news and delicate end‐of‐life discussions. Recent research emphasizes how patients pursue wellness rather than sickness, life‐affirming impacts of hope and perseverance, and relationships between good and bad news. Discovering basic patterns about the interactional organization of oncology interviews can have direct implications for enhancing the quality of care provided. Significant findings are reviewed offering new knowledge that can be translated into best practices for creating informed, personalized, and compassionate care environments.