Interventions in Health Care Interaction

This edited collection presents the latest work on the application of discursive psychology and conversation analysis to sensitive interactions and interventions in healthcare. While all interactions in healthcare settings can be challenging for both patients and practitioners, this book pays particular attention to topics that are likely to be especially sensitive, such as communication around sexual health, palliative care, suicide prevention, medically unexplained symptoms, or chronic pain. Across nine chapters authors discuss how discursive psychology and conversation analysis can help us understand what people actually do in conversations, hence providing a strong basis for developing and testing training methods that support health professionals to reflect on their interactions with patients. Addressing both practical and theoretical challenges in the development and implementation of such training sessions, this volume establishes the state-of-the-art in this area and offers a valuable tool for academics and researchers in discourse analytical fields, practitioners working to improve communication in health, as well as meeting facilitators in education or work settings related to healthcare.

Petra Sneijder is Associate Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, the Netherlands. As part of the Communication in Digital Transition research group, she analyses societal issues using a discursive psychological perspective. She is specifically interested in translating findings into practical implementation, using (digital) interventions.

Annette Klarenbeek is Professor of Applied Sciences and part of the Communication in Digital Transition research group at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, the Netherlands. Her work takes an interactional perspective on communication with an emphasis on conversational communities.