Hello,
Thanks for
visiting this site. The discussions here focus on
why communicating about health can make a difference in our health and
our
quality of life.
I became
interested in answering the “why” question more than
two decades ago. I was completing a project for an undergraduate course
in
technical writing. I had to write a technical report, and my
brother-in-law was
working for a health care organization that needed such a report. I
learned to
conduct a patient chart audit. The goal was to look at the charts of
children
being seen in the clinic where I was conducting the audit and see
whether
pediatric patients were getting the recommended preventive care…things
like
shots but also guidance about safety in the home or recommendations
about language
development, all depending on the age of the child. There was a
schedule I
followed for these recommendations and I made checks on sheets in boxes
where
something had been done. This then showed which ones hadn’t been done.
It was a
surprising number that weren’t being done, and I began to wonder why
that might
be the case.
It wasn’t long
before I decided to try to find some answers
by going to graduate school and take a look at the situation. My thesis
for my
Masters degree explored exactly this issue. Why did parents stop
bringing their
children for well child exams after the two month check-up? I learned
that it
had a lot to do with communication. Parents wanted more communication
about
what their child should be doing, how “normal” their child’s
development was
when compared to some standard or average for the child’s age. But they
didn’t
ask for more discussion about this issue. They just stopped coming for
well
child visits.
The “Am I
normal?” is a question that emerged time and again
in the situations where I found myself trying to understand the role of
communication for health. It is the first question I discuss in the
book.
Perhaps you have some other thoughts about this process that you will
want to
share in the blog. Please do. That and any other ideas that the book
suggests
you might have some experience with and some insights to share or some
questions to explore. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for
visiting this web site,
Roxanne
Parrott
rlp18@psu.edu
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