Creating supportive relationships

A study on call center discursive interactions between cancer patients and healthcare personnel

Authors

  • Amelia Manuti University of Bari
  • Caterina Arcidiacono Federico II University
  • Marina Esposito Federico II University
  • Giuseppe Mininni University of Bari.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.32692

Keywords:

diatextual analysis, enunciative profiles, home-based chemotherapeutic treatments, patient–doctor interaction, telephone consultation

Abstract

Good communication between patients, families and healthcare personnel has been shown to have beneficial effects on patient compliance and satisfaction, and to influence health outcomes. The present study uses a dedicated call center for patients undergoing home based chemotherapeutic treatments to examine the communicative relationship between patients and healthcare personnel and to address the specific rhetorical patterns used by the interlocutors to make sense of the healthcare relationship and to shape the context of talk. Diatextual analysis was applied to 54 telephone interactions between patients and medical operators to investigate the nexus between identity, texts, and context of talk, and the results highlight some specific peculiarities of the dynamics of healthcare provisions and requirements. The analysis of the enunciative profiles of patients and healthcare personnel showed that a call center can be an efficient means of providing healthcare service as long as it succeeds in keeping together the individual and collective stances that through discourse substantiate different interpretative repertoires of healthcare experience.

Author Biographies

  • Amelia Manuti, University of Bari

    Amelia Manuti has a PhD in Psychology of Communication and is Researcher in Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Bari. Her main research interests are discourse and organization studies.

  • Caterina Arcidiacono, Federico II University

    Caterina Arcidiacono is Full Professor of Community Psychology at Naples University. Her main research interest is in the study of interaction between individuals and organizations from a critical community psychology perspective, with reference to grounded theory and qualitative research.

  • Marina Esposito, Federico II University

    Marina Esposito is a clinical and community psychologist. She obtained her professional qualifications from the Department of Oncology at the Ospedale Antonio Cardarelli of Naples by undertaking an action research project on the organization of the Oncology Department, under the tutorship of Professor Arcidiacono.

  • Giuseppe Mininni, University of Bari.

    Giuseppe Mininni is Full Professor of Psychology of Communication and Cultural Psychology at the University of Bari. His main interests are pragmatics and the social psychology of discourse.

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Published

2017-05-02

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Manuti, A., Arcidiacono, C., Esposito, M., & Mininni, G. (2017). Creating supportive relationships: A study on call center discursive interactions between cancer patients and healthcare personnel. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 10(2), 151-176. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.32692

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