Proficiency in English is crucial for effective and appropriate medical communication and U.K. regulating bodies for nurse and doctor practitioners use standardised tests (such as IELTS, OET, TOEFL) to assess English proficiency of non-UK/EU applicants.
The aim of this project is to investigate a corpus of authentic clinical interactions to identify patterns of interaction and language used by health professionals and as such, determine how well the English tests taken by applicants reflect English as used in ‘real life’ encounters. Our investigation will help us to identify the key communication skills required to deliver effective clinical care and allow us to support industrial partners with specific recommendations for language assessment and training for healthcare staff.
With a broad focus on the various participant roles within the patient journey through Emergency Departments, we are investigating how the language used by patients, nurses, doctors and other hospital staff reflects their various responsibilities and status. Specifically, we focus on the following aspects of language: –
– Questions: which participants ask questions throughout the encounter? How are they phrased and to what do they refer? How do health professionals check understanding?
– Directives: how do health professionals issue instructions? What types of mitigation or hedging are used?
– Openings: how do the participants introduce themselves and establish their roles? Do health professionals use names/titles?
– Pronouns: how do participants establish and maintain individual/collective identities through the use of pronouns?
– Small talk: how and when do health professionals engage in small talk with patients? Or with other health professionals?
– Empathy: how do we evidence expressions of empathy in the data? What kinds of empathy phrases do we observe and does this differ according to role?
Our approach is designed to identify those recurring interactional features of Emergency Department encounters that can help inform the teaching and assessment procedures that prepare candidates for the ‘real world’ of healthcare communication.
Team
Dr Dana Gablasova (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/dana-gablasova) (Lead Investigator)
Dr Luke Collins (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/luke-collins) (Senior Research Associate)
Dr Vaclav Brezina (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/vaclav-brezina) (Co-Investigator)
Dr John Pill (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/john-pill) (Co-Investigator)