a Portfolio of Tactics to Simplify Health Care

Aimed at healthcare students: medical, nursing, and allied professionals, the textbook covers a broad range of topics in Global Health as investigated and summarized by Cardiff University medical students completing a short course in Global Health. Global Health is an increasingly important aspect of the undergraduate medical curriculum but is rarely formally taught at undergraduate level.

Offering a social scientific look at humor's role in medical transactions, this volume is based on extensive field study in seven medical settings. It includes excerpts from dozens of actual conversations between patients and caregivers. Analysis of these episodes reveals that humor is a practical tool used to meet many medical objectives. It is used by patients to good-naturedly complain and to campaign for more personal attention, and by caregivers to get attention, make amends, insist on unpleasant routines, and establish rapport.