23rd Annual Student Research Conference
Doctor-Patient Interaction from the Perspective of Conversation Analysis: A Pilot-Study on Bad News Delivery in House
Maria Evelynt Gandon Chapela♦
Dr. Mary Shapiro, Dr. Esperanza Rama Martinez (University of Vigo), and Dr. Javier Perez Guerra (University of Vigo), Faculty Mentors
An interesting area to apply the findings of Conversation Analysis in institutional settings is that of doctor-patient interaction in medical consultations. In this study we will explore the way in which doctors face the situation of delivering bad news to their patients and the different types of behaviour adopted. For this purpose, several extracts taken from the transcripts of eight chapters of the TV series House will be used. Observation will focus on the extent to which the doctors in this TV series differ in the use of their communication skills when telling patients about maladies and if they mitigate the impact that this type of information may provoke. Analysis has concentrated on several extracts which exemplify doctor-patient interaction in the context of bad news delivery. The results seem to indicate that Dr. House is by far less tactful than his fellow colleagues when delivering bad news to patients.
Keywords: Conversation Analysis (CA), Interaction, Communication skills
Topic(s):Linguistics
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 36-1
Location: VH 1236
Time: 1:15