A Very Preliminary Focusing of Themes for Research

The impact of doctor-patient relationships on recovery times
Follow-up care and healing in relationship to patient perceptions of degree/quality of care and physician support
Traditional and non-traditional models of bedside manner and its impact on patient wellness (possible cross-cultural examinations)
Professional development and emerging models of patient-doctor relationships
Socioeconomic, racial, gender, sexuality and other factors that impact access, delivery and level of care provided
Governmental and legal dictates and their impact on the doctor-patient relationship
Components of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that implicate, intervene and impact the patient-doctor relationship
Insurance companies and their role and impact on managing the doctor-patient relationship
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Instructions for Journal 4: For this journal, I would like you to place your preliminary topic in one of the general areas of inquiry above. In what ways is your topic related? Try to find even the slightest connection and give examples and a rationale for why your topic fits with one of the above. If you are unsure of a topic at present, that is fine as well. In such case, consider what area you may be interested in researching at this early stage in the process – you can change your mind later.
Additionally, some of your topics will inevitably connect to other disciplines/fields: law, communication studies, psychology, sociology, cross-cultural studies, literature, etc. Please consider these, and other academic fields, and explore at least two connections. For example, you may want to look at communication styles when examining how doctors speak to patients; this would fall under communications studies, and perhaps psychology.