“I’m Worth Saving”: Making Sense of Medication Taking in a Care Coordination Organization

Cusanno, Brianna R.; Dean, Marleah; Silva, Vesta T.

doi:10.1080/10410236.2021.1920713

“I’m Worth Saving”: Making Sense of Medication Taking in a Care Coordination Organization

Persistent URL

https://dspace.allegheny.edu/handle/10456/54510

Author(s)

Cusanno, Brianna R.

Dean, Marleah

Silva, Vesta T.

Date Issued

December 1, 2022

Abstract

Patients and healthcare providers (HCPs) may communicatively make sense of medication taking in divergent ways. Often, HCPs prioritize medication adherence, the extent to which patients consume medications as prescribed. In contrast, patients may focus on how medications fit in with their everyday lives. Care coordination organizations (CCOs) provide cohesive, interdisciplinary, health services to chronically ill patients and may help bridge the gap between patient and HCP sensemaking. Our qualitative study asked: How do patients and HCPs involved in a CCO communicatively make sense of medication taking? Through thematic analysis, we found three themes related to patients’ sensemaking. Patients (N = 9) made sense of medication taking (1) as necessary and important through embodied experiences, social discourses, and interpersonal interactions; (2) as easy when supported; and (3) through building bonds. We also found three themes related to HCPs’ sensemaking: HCP participants (N = 5) made sense of medication taking (1) through dialogue with patients; (2) by interacting in patients’ home spaces; and (3) through building relationships with patients. Our final theme explores how communicative sensemaking became more complicated for participants in the context of psychotropic medications. Using Mishler’s Voice of the Lifeworld (VoL) and Weick’s sensemaking, we advance a constitutive perspective on medication taking. We suggest that researchers and HCPs should focus on constructing shared meanings about medication taking through dialogue, rather than on increasing adherence. Our study provides evidence that, by promoting engagement with the VoL, CCOs may facilitate such dialogs.

Journal

Health Communication

Department

Communication Arts & Theatre

Citation

Brianna R. Cusanno, Marleah Dean & Vesta T. Silva (2021) “I’m Worth Saving”: Making Sense of Medication Taking in a Care Coordination Organization, Health Communication, DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2021.1920713

Publisher

Routledge

Version of Article

Published article

DOI

10.1080/10410236.2021.1920713

ISSN

1532-7027

Rights

File(s)

Name

2021_05_04_Silva_ImPOSTPRINT.pdf

Description

Postprint

Size

243.98 KB

Format

Adobe PDF

Checksum (MD5)

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