Managing information, interaction and team building in nurse shift-change handovers: a case study

Ylanne, Virpi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9042-5501, Aldridge-Waddon, Michelle ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6087-2589, Spilioti, Tereza ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2768-3043 and Bartlett, Tom ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3719-1766 2021. Managing information, interaction and team building in nurse shift-change handovers: a case study. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 16 (1) , pp. 51-75.

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Abstract

Whilst there is a wealth of literature on medical handovers, discourse analytic work based on recorded interactional data on these pivotal speech events in health care is less prevalent. This case study of a shift-change nursing handover at a UK hospital Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) takes a microanalytical perspective on nurses’ talk and interaction, which enables us to examine its structural and functional complexity at utterance level. Our methodological approach comprises observations, one semi-structured interview with senior nursing staff (and many informal conversations with various staff), and in total twelve audio-recordings of interactions during, and around, the twice-daily shift-change handovers. By adopting ‘a multiple goals in discourse’ perspective and the framework of activity analysis, we demonstrate the nurses’ interactional management of multiple discourse and activity roles and pursuance of goals that transcend the medically and institutionally crucial transmission of information. This shows the nurses’ orientation to the handover task as not only a structured institutionally regulated event, but also one that tolerates more spontaneous activities that can potentially contribute to team cohesion and staff well-being.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Equinox Publishing
ISSN:	2040-3658
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	4 January 2021
Date of Acceptance:	10 December 2020
Last Modified:	21 Nov 2024 19:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/137248

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