Metaphors And Models Of Doctor-Patient Relationship Summary

In James F. Childress and Mark Siegler’s article, “Metaphors and Models of Doctor-Patient Relationships: Their Implications for Autonomy,” they discuss the types of relationships in healthcare and how those relationships allow the physician and patient to interact to make negotiations. Childress and Siegler say that relationships are either between intimates or between strangers and that when it is between strangers there is a lack of trust because of the way physicians are viewed most days. Because of the way society has turned to rules and regulations and the pluralistic nature of our society, physicians are often viewed as technicians and contractors rather than as parents or friends. Often times people refuse to visit the doctor’s office because there is a lack of trust towards the idea of a physician rather than the physician herself. Health care has become dictated by economics and politics, which are fields people consider to be cold and calculating. So the field of healthcare has become one of distrust because it can be seen as an exchange of services and goods rather than a person caring and treating another. There are many rules and regulations that guide health care and in turn it becomes something that is denied for some, which feeds into that cycle of distrust.

People generally trust those whom they are able to relate to when it

In the US, because of the way healthcare is dictated much by rules and regulations, physicians are often seen as strangers and there is a lack of trust between the physician and patient. The physician often times ends up taking the role of a technician or contractor. While these may not be the most effective types of relationships, the society that we are in has turned towards those