Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Patients’ Stories Of Encounters With Doctors: Expectations And Anxieties, Daniella Arieli, Batya Tamir

Patient Experience Journal

The study contributes to the understanding of how patients experience encounters with doctors. The study is based on the gathering and analysis of subjective stories of 'healthy' patients who live in Israel about their encounters with doctors. On the one hand, medical encounters were described as functional ritualistic events, and the doctor was described as an indifferent clerk. On the other hand, and often at the same time, medical encounters were perceived as incredibly meaningful and potentially fateful events, and the doctor as a supreme authority. Four main inter-connected expressions of this were: 1. The encounter as a ritual: A …