Communication, collaboration, and teamwork among health care professionals

Abstract

Health communication is a vital topic for research because everyone either interacts with health professionals, encounters health-related messages in the media, has suffered from a serious illness, or has experienced a loved one with a life-threatening or terminal illness (Sharf, 1993). Our experiences with health and illness are significant to our sense of self. Two journals in the field of communication, Health Communication and the Journal of Health Communication publish research exclusively on communication topics within health care, public health campaigns, and related issues. Additionally, mainstream communication journals such as Journal of Applied Communication Research and Communication Monographs, also publish articles on health communication. Journals in a range of other disciplines cover health communication topics, such as Health Psychology, Sociology of Health and Illness, and Qualitative Health Research. Both graduate and undergraduate communication curricula in universities across the U.S. commonly include health communication courses, and there is a growing market for textbooks in the field. Three excellent introductory textbooks written by communication scholars include Beck’s (2001) Communicating for better health: A guide through the medical mazes, du Pre’s (1999) Communicating about health: Current issues and perspectives and the forthcoming (October 2002) Communicating health: Personal, cultural, and political complexities by Geist-Martin, Ray, and Sharf.