[Communicative competence and physician - patient relationship in aboriginal health care]

Abstract

Modern society consists of people from all walks of life. This melting pot of cultures might be considered both enriching and problematic. In order to communicate successfully, society members should acquire some social skills specific to a given community or, in other words, develop their communicative competence. The aim of this paper is to examine the way extralinguistic knowledge can influence physician - patient relationship in Aboriginal Australian communities. The paper is concerned with not only reviewing fundamental principles of ethnography and communicative competence but also identifying the main cultural differences that may affect the quality of healthcare services.

Keywords: communicative competence; Aboriginal Australians; ethnography; physician-patient relationship.