TY - JOUR AU1 - Humphris, Rachel AU2 - Bradby, Hannah AU3 - Padilla, Beatriz AU4 - Phillimore, Jenny AU5 - Pemberton, Simon AU6 - Samerski, Silja AB - Research has long focused on the notion of access and the trajectory towards a healthcare encounter but has neglected what happens to patients after these initial encounters. This paper focuses attention on what happens after an initial healthcare encounter leading to a more nuanced understanding of how patients from a diverse range of backgrounds make sense of medical advice, how they mix this knowledge with other forms of information and how they make decisions about what to do next.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on 160 in-depth interviews across four European countries the paper problematizes the notion of access; expands the definition of “decision partners”; and reframes the medical encounter as a journey, where one encounter leads to and informs the next.FindingsThis approach reveals the significant unseen, unrecognised and unacknowledged work that patients undertake to solve their health concerns.Originality/valueDe-centring the professional from the healthcare encounter allows us to understand why patients take particular pathways to care and how resources might be more appropriately leveraged to support both patients and professionals along this journey. TI - After encounters: revealing patients’ unseen work through their pathways to care JF - International Journal of Migration Health and Social Care DO - 10.1108/ijmhsc-07-2019-0066 DA - 2020-06-08 UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/emerald-publishing/after-encounters-revealing-patients-unseen-work-through-their-pathways-Qfj3g07le1 SP - 173 EP - 187 VL - 16 IS - 2 DP - DeepDyve ER -