Medicalization of Communication: An Examination of Communication Policies in American Medicine

ABSTRACT

Communication skills with patients and healthcare teams has continued to be one of the main topics of discussion within medical education and has intensified over the past few years. Although communication is not a disease to be named, or a specific medical problem, the innovation is continuously reconstructed and redefined regarding how to be utilized for better healthcare. This paper uses policy analysis to argue that interaction between physicians and patients is an essential part of the medical community in communication, and thus it has been medicalized. Examining the medical profession’s policies will demonstrate that the medicalization of communication exists by being an integral part of physician practice and education and is the medical community.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical education
• COVID-19
• communication policy
• health communication
• policy in medicine

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my very great appreciation for the support and guidance of my Maria Adamuti-Trache, PhD and the entire Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. I would also like to thank Grant Moore, LCSW, Drs. Caitlin Holt Siropaides, and Yi Leaf Zhang for agreeing to review the manuscript and offer suggestions.

Disclosure statement

This author has no associations that are relevant to the content/subject of this paper, financial or otherwise.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.