Conceptualising language awareness in healthcare communication: the case of nurse shift-change handover meetings

Abstract

The paper develops the concept of language awareness (LA) by considering the material-social-discursive nexus of the communicative situation that affords professional practice. It also presents a mixed-methods study that provides a deeper and multi-layered understanding of LA in action and sets out a methodological framework for similar research in healthcare communication. Our study addresses: (i) the need for LA (re)conceptualisation in research on healthcare contexts, (ii) the ways in which a mixed-methods approach provides a deeper understanding of both implicit and explicit LA and (iii) the opportunities raised for reflection on practice through researcher-practitioner contact. Drawing on our linguistic ethnography of nurse shift-change handover meetings in a hospital unit, we draw on and expand van Lier’s model by demonstrating the shortcomings of limiting LA to awareness of language as system rather than as activity embedded in particular socio-discursive situations. Regarding nursing handovers, we argue that handover practice and ongoing patient safety not only require the implementation of communication protocols, but also depend on nurses’ reflective practice as the different types of interactions address crucially different levels of awareness. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and methodological contribution of our study to the fields of LA and healthcare communication.

KEYWORDS:

• Language awareness
• nurse handovers
• clinical practice
• healthcare communication
• professional discourse
• linguistic ethnography

Acknowledgments

A draft of this paper was presented in the Language Awareness in Professional Communication panel at the Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice (ALAPP) 2018 Conference (Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University) and at the Association of Language Awareness Conference (Amsterdam, 2018). We are grateful to staff and management of the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board for their immense support to the research project. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and special issue editors for their constructive feedback and Harriet Lloyd and Sam Haworth for their useful role in data transcription.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tereza Spilioti

Tereza Spilioti is Senior Lecturer in Language and Communication at Cardiff University. Her main research interests are in discourse and social interaction, with a focus on media and professional communication issues. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals (Pragmatics, Applied Linguistics Review) and edited collections (OUP, Routledge). She is the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Language and Digital Communication (with A. Georgakopoulou, 2016).

Michelle Aldridge-Waddon

Michelle Aldridge-Waddon is Senior Lecturer in the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at Cardiff University. Her main interests are in professional communication, communication disorders, child language acquisition, forensic linguistics and psycholinguistics. Her particular focus is on the linguistic experiences of vulnerable people (children, rape victims and people with a disability) and their interactions with professionals especially within the legal system. She is involved in police investigative interview training and has organised conferences in child language acquisition, forensic linguistics and cognitive linguistics.

Tom Bartlett

Tom Bartlett is Reader in English Language and Linguistics at Glasgow University. His research interests are in Systemic Functional Linguistics, interactional sociolinguistics and critical discourse analysis, particularly in the fields of community management and sustainability. He has published widely in international peer reviewed journals, and is an author and co-author of five book-length publications in the field of Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Virpi Ylänne

Virpi Ylänne is Senior Lecturer in Language and Communication at Cardiff University. Her main research interests are in discourse and social interaction and lifespan identities. She has published in a wide range of international journals, including Journal of Communication, Discourse & Communication, Discourse Studies, Journal of Aging Studies and Ageing & Society. She is the editor of the collection Representing Ageing: Images and Identities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).