Abstract
Nurses need to adapt to various interactional situations and design their talk for different recipients. One essential communicative task for nurses is to transmit information on test and measurement results both to the patient and to the physician. This article examines how nurses design their talk on numerical values according to the recipient and the activity. The nurse can deliver the information either plainly through numbers or by formulating some type of qualitative description of the value. The data consist of 7.5 hours of video-recorded interaction in a Finnish hospital. Using conversation analysis, we demonstrate how the institutional roles and the ongoing activity sequence affect how nurses formulate their talk. When nurses discuss results with their patients, they typically use qualitative descriptions, whereas when they talk with doctors, the typical turn involves numeric information. It will be demonstrated that nurses construct their professional identity involving both care and medical expertise through their linguistic-interactional choices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Discourse Studies |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Pages (from-to) | 180-198 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| ISSN | 1461-4456 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2019 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Fields of Science
- 6121 Languages
- Conversation analysis
- hospital interaction
- numeric information
- nursing
- COMMUNICATION
- QUESTIONS
- NUMERACY
- CARE
Cite this
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Dealing with numbers : Nurses informing doctors and patients about test results. / Kurhila, Salla; Lehtimaja, Inkeri.
In: Discourse Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2, 04.2019, p. 180-198.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Dealing with numbers
T2 - Nurses informing doctors and patients about test results
AU - Kurhila, Salla
AU - Lehtimaja, Inkeri
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - Nurses need to adapt to various interactional situations and design their talk for different recipients. One essential communicative task for nurses is to transmit information on test and measurement results both to the patient and to the physician. This article examines how nurses design their talk on numerical values according to the recipient and the activity. The nurse can deliver the information either plainly through numbers or by formulating some type of qualitative description of the value. The data consist of 7.5 hours of video-recorded interaction in a Finnish hospital. Using conversation analysis, we demonstrate how the institutional roles and the ongoing activity sequence affect how nurses formulate their talk. When nurses discuss results with their patients, they typically use qualitative descriptions, whereas when they talk with doctors, the typical turn involves numeric information. It will be demonstrated that nurses construct their professional identity involving both care and medical expertise through their linguistic-interactional choices.
AB - Nurses need to adapt to various interactional situations and design their talk for different recipients. One essential communicative task for nurses is to transmit information on test and measurement results both to the patient and to the physician. This article examines how nurses design their talk on numerical values according to the recipient and the activity. The nurse can deliver the information either plainly through numbers or by formulating some type of qualitative description of the value. The data consist of 7.5 hours of video-recorded interaction in a Finnish hospital. Using conversation analysis, we demonstrate how the institutional roles and the ongoing activity sequence affect how nurses formulate their talk. When nurses discuss results with their patients, they typically use qualitative descriptions, whereas when they talk with doctors, the typical turn involves numeric information. It will be demonstrated that nurses construct their professional identity involving both care and medical expertise through their linguistic-interactional choices.
KW - 6121 Languages
KW - Conversation analysis
KW - hospital interaction
KW - numeric information
KW - nursing
KW - COMMUNICATION
KW - QUESTIONS
KW - NUMERACY
KW - CARE
U2 - 10.1177/1461445618802662
DO - 10.1177/1461445618802662
M3 - Article
VL - 21
SP - 180
EP - 198
JO - Discourse Studies
JF - Discourse Studies
SN - 1461-4456
IS - 2
ER -