Health communication
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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
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.
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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 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialIncreasing the effectiveness of messages promoting responsible undergraduate drinking: tailoring to personality and matching to context.
This study addressed the serious problem of college student binge drinking by identifying factors that improve the effectiveness of messages encouraging responsible drinking presented through a website simulation. We tested schema matching (i.e., whether the message matches the person's self-schema type or not) and two types of context matching (i.e., whether the message matches the topic or values of the message context) to determine their relative influence on the effectiveness of the message. ⋯ Significant interactions between topic matching and value matching on message evaluation variables indicated that the message should not match the message context too closely. That is, there appears to be a matching threshold: Increasing the number of factors the message matches does not increase message effectiveness, possibly because it makes the message too redundant with the surrounding content.
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Health communication · Dec 2011
Public information officers' perceived control in building local public health agendas and the impact of community size.
Using data collected from 280 local public health information officers (PIOs) serving community sizes from rural to urban across the United States, this study examines issues of local autonomy or lack thereof in establishing local health agendas. It specifically addresses how size of community as well as state and federal agencies' agendas affect public health promotion at the local level. ⋯ Alternatively, urban PIOs report low levels of both perceived state and federal departmental control yet higher levels of local departmental control compared to counterparts in other sized locales. Implications and importance of findings are discussed.