Graduation Year
Spring 2012
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Anthropology
Reader 1
Lara Deeb
Reader 2
Leda Martins
Reader 3
Pardis Mahdavi
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2012 Katya A. Shackelford
Abstract
This thesis is about primary care medicine in the United States today. Specifically, I look into primary care providers’ experiences working with patients in the context of the public’s current access to extensive health and medical information online. In this thesis, I discuss and analyze my conversations with physicians, nurse practitioners, and a physicians’ assistant about their objectives in primary care, the challenges they face, and their perceptions of patients’ ability to seek out information on their own. I explore providers’ educational emphasis in primary care consultations, and argue that this focus on education informs their views of patients’ independent research and involvement in care. I further argue that regardless of my informants’ enthusiasm about patient involvement and the merits of patient-education, these providers still hold and express a strong authority over medical knowledge and decisions. Thus in looking at the influence of what could be seen as a democratization of medical knowledge through public access and the Internet, it seems that the limitations of such access are still great in U.S. medical practice.
Recommended Citation
Shackelford, Katya A., "Complexities of Participation: Education and Authority in Primary Care Patient-Provider Interactions in the age of the Internet" (2012). Scripps Senior Theses. 72.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/72
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
