Toerien2013
| Toerien2013 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Toerien2013 |
| Author(s) | Merran Toerien, Rebecca Shaw, Markus Reuber |
| Title | Initiating decision-making in neurology consultations: ‘recommending’ versus ‘option-listing’ and the implications for medical authority |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | CA, Medical interaction, Institutional talk, Option-listing, Medical recommendations, Authority, Choice |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2013 |
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| Month | July |
| Journal | Sociology of Health & Illness |
| Volume | 35 |
| Number | 6 |
| Pages | 873–890 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9566.12000 |
| ISBN | |
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Abstract
This article compares two practices for initiating treatment decision-making, evident in audio-recorded consultations between a neurologist and 13 patients in two hospital clinics in the UK. We call these ‘recommending’ and ‘option-listing’. The former entails making a proposal to do something; the latter entails the construction of a list of options. Using conversation analysis (CA), we illustrate each, showing that the distinction between these two practices matters to participants. Our analysis centres on two distinctions between the practices: epistemic differences and differences in the slots each creates for the patient’s response. Considering the implications of our findings for understanding medical authority, we argue that option-listing – relative to recommending – is a practice whereby clinicians work to relinquish a little of their authority. This article contributes, then, to a growing body of CA work that offers a more nuanced, tempered account of medical authority than is typically portrayed in the sociological literature. We argue that future CA studies should map out the range of ways – in addition to recommending – in which treatment decision-making is initiated by clinicians. This will allow for further evidence-based contributions to debates on the related concepts of patient participation, choice, shared decision-making and medical authority.
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