Any human relationship depends on communication. From our daily lives' recurring thoughts and actions to the significant events of our lifetimes, we use communication to create messages and meaning about our experiences. Because the stakes are so high and because health and illness have an impact on quality of life, health communication is essential. However, speaking with nurses and other healthcare professionals can be quite difficult due to health concerns' private and occasionally overwhelming nature. The concept that individualized care and attentiveness to patient's health problems are essential components of attaining optimal health outcomes reflects long-standing nursing beliefs. Research that examines and clarifies the who, the what, the where, the when, the whys, the how’s, and the how wells of interactions with individuals, families, and communities receiving care and health services are crucial in today's world where communication increasingly involves device-mediated encounters in addition to face-to-face interactions. The need for health communication research is significant across all nursing science priorities, including symptom science, wellness, self-management for enhancing the quality of life in people with chronic illness, and end-of-life and palliative care (National Institute of Nursing Research [NINR], 2011].1 To make their study more applicable to practice, maximize its impact, and advance the field of health communication research, nursing scientists should include communication-related issues in their research plans. A thorough investigation of the conversation sequences produced during the health history-taking section of consultations at an ambulatory health facility was published in this issue of Nursing Research (Vickers, Lindfelt, & Dodd-Butera, 2016).

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