A Consumer's Reflections on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Traditional Western Medicine

摘要

This article presents a consumers reflections on traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Western medicine, with a particular focus on the processes in the relationship between the practitioner and the consumer. It does not engage with the broader debates about efficacy and 'scientific validity . The article aims to show why it is important to listen to patients-as-consumers about their experiences of health services. It is informed by contemporary scholarship that sees consumer participation as an ethical practice, and as essential to compliance with treatment and service effectiveness. The article uses an auto/biographical methodology that is consistent with encouraging consumers' participation in health and welfare services, and in evaluating interventions beyond narrowly-defined outcomes, experimental designs, and randomised controlled trials. This personal narrative is a reflection on experiences over at least 10 years of receiving health services from practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and traditional Western medicine (TWM) in a large regional town in eastern Australia. Differing models of health, intervention, and the relationship between practitioners and consumers, influence individual practitioners' approaches to consumers. Recommendations are offered on how listening to a consumer's experiences may improve professional practice in health services.