In Med Sociology courses, I bumped into the concept "patient compliance" ALL the time and it ground my gears, too. However, as nice as it is to know LCs don't operate (most of the time, most of us) within that realm, I continue to run into it. Classic and most personal example: when I questioned my own MD's diagnosis of a problem and insisted on a second medical opinion (which by the way did not confirm the first one), my MD dumped me as a patient! Clearly, I did not "comply" with her wishes. So much for reality. I like to think of the above example as one in which "physician compliance" was not in my own best interests nor what I would have preferred! :-) Here's to improving vocabularies and concepts that seek to describe the health care-client relationship and behaviors therein!!! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% "We are all faced with a series of great %% %% opportunities brilliantly disguised as %% %% impossible situations" - definition of a %% %% lactation consulting service. %% %% Kathleen G. Auerbach, PhD, IBCLC %% %% [log in to unmask] Homewood, Illinois USA %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%