Health communication
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Health communication · Jan 2013
The milspouse battle rhythm: communicating resilience throughout the deployment cycle.
Military spouses (milspouses) enact resilience through communication before, during, and after military deployments. Based on an organizing framework of resilience processes ( Buzzanell, 2010 ), this study examined milspouses' communicative construction of resilience during an increasingly rapid military deployment cycle. Narratives from in-depth interviews with military spouses (n = 24) revealed how resilience is achieved through communication seeking to reconcile the often contradictory realities of milspouses who endure physical, psychological, and social difficulties due to prolonged separations from their partners.
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Health communication · Jan 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialFamily caregiver participation in hospice interdisciplinary team meetings: how does it affect the nature and content of communication?
Collaboration between family caregivers and health care providers is necessary to ensure patient-centered care, especially for hospice patients. During hospice care, interdisciplinary team members meet biweekly to collaborate and develop holistic care plans that address the physical, spiritual, psychological, and social needs of patients and families. The purpose of this study was to explore team communication when video-conferencing is used to facilitate the family caregiver's participation in a hospice team meeting. ⋯ Standard meetings that did not include caregivers were shorter in duration and task-focused, with little participation from social workers and chaplains. Meetings that included caregivers revealed an emphasis on biomedical education and relationship-building between participants, little psychosocial counseling, and increased socioemotional talk from social workers and chaplains. Implications for family participation in hospice team meetings are highlighted.
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Health communication · Jan 2013
When patients are impatient: the communication strategies utilized by emergency department employees to manage patients frustrated by wait times.
Studies have documented the frustrations patients experience during long wait times in emergency departments (EDs), but considerably less research has sought to understand ED staff responses to these frustrations. In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 ED social workers, patient navigators, and medical staff members at a large urban hospital regarding their experiences and interpersonal strategies for dealing with frustrated patients. ⋯ They voiced several strategies for addressing wait time frustrations, including expressing empathy for patients, making patients feel occupied and wait times seem more productive, and educating patients about when health issues should be treated through primary care. All staff members recognized the need for engaging in empathic communication with frustrated patients, but social workers and patient navigators were able to dedicate more time to these types of interactions.
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Health communication · Jan 2013
Check the box that best describes you: reflexively managing theory and praxis in LGBTQ health communication research.
The intersections between identity and health communication are complex and dynamic, yet few studies employ a critical-empirical research strategy to understand how these factors affect patient experiences. And although other disciplines have examined lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ)-specific issues surrounding identity and health care, there is a gap in communication studies literature on the topic. ⋯ We also offer recommendations for creating queer-friendly intake forms and avoiding heteronormativity in health communication research. Overall, we argue that researchers must use reflexive methodology in considering how identity categories can both limit and assist LGBTQ patients.
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Health communication · Jan 2013
From press release to news: mapping the framing of the 2009 H1N1 A influenza pandemic.
Pandemics challenge conventional assumptions about health promotion, message development, community engagement, and the role of news media. To understand the use of press releases in news coverage of pandemics, this study traces the development of framing devices from a government public health agency's press releases to news stories about the 2009 H1N1 A influenza pandemic. ⋯ A content analysis shows that the evolution of information from press release to news is marked by significant changes in media frames, including the expansion and diversification in dominant frames and emotion appeals, stronger thematic framing, more sources of information, conversion of loss frames into gain frames, and amplification of positive tone favoring the public health agency's position. Contrary to previous research that suggests that government information subsidies passed almost unchanged through media gatekeepers, the news coverage of the pandemic reflects journalists' selectivity in disseminating the government press releases and in mediating the information flow and frames from the press releases.