Pabent mvolvement on the other hand is perhaps closer
to tbe concept of patient parbcipabon Indeed, witbm
some of the Amencan literature (Greenfield et al 1985,
Weiss 1986) the term 'patient involvement' appears to be
used synonjmiously with 'pabent parbcipabon' However,
close exammabon of a broader range of literature reveals
disbnguisbmg cbaractenstics Firstly, pabent involvement
IS considered to be a one-way as opposed to a two-way
process as tbe pabent's voice is mostly ignored (Mittler &
McConacbie 1983) Secondly, a narrowmg of tbe knowledge
or infonnabon gap is not required for patient mvolvement
as acbvibes are undertaken in tbe form of delegated
tasks Furtbermore, tbe tasks are of a very basic nature
(Netbercott 1993) and do not extend to complex mtellectual
acbvibes sucb as decision mabng Jacobs (1980)
© 1996