Main description:

Communication and Professional Relationships in Healthcare Practice focuses on the crucial role that spoken interactions play in shaping relationships in contemporary healthcare practice. The authors apply theoretical concepts of communication to the workplace of healthcare, drawing upon scenarios based in the settings of clinical experience. The book presents a wide range of interactions (including consultations, team meetings, dialogues and casual conversations) between health professionals, their colleagues and their clients or patients in a variety of settings. Drawing on the latest research in applied linguistics and professional communication, the authors introduce readers to a number of approaches that can be used to analyse these interactions. Using these techniques, readers will discover exactly how central themes of healthcare practice (including trust, empathy, expertise and breaking bad news) are constructed through the communicative choices that participants make in these interactions.
Designed specifically for medical, nursing and allied health practitioners with an interest in communication, the book makes the techniques of discourse analysis accessible and provides ample opportunities for individual practitioners to apply this knowledge to their own professional contexts.

Contents:

Preface Acknowledgments Transcription conventions Glossary 1. Introduction: A Framework for the Study of Interactions in Healthcare Settings 2. Managing the Interaction 3. Common Purposes or Cross Purposes 4. Respecting Feelings and Perspectives 5. Polite, Persuasive or Pushy? 6. Projecting an Identity to Others 7. High Stakes Interactions 8. Challenging Situations, Challenging Discourses 9. The Expert Practitioner: Professional Expertise and Communicative Expertise 10. Communication in Healthcare Teams 11. Healthcare Teams: Leadership, Power and Ethical Dilemmas 12. Ways Forward: Applying Theory to your Practice