Details below for the next event in the UCL Health Communication Network’s seminar series on 12th March, 2024 1-2pm.

For our next seminar we are excited to announce a guest speaker, Dr. Emma Putland, joining us from Lancaster University. As such, we will be holding an online-only event.

Location: Online only

Joining link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/95401339303?pwd=dkVuOVVCR1dubWp5d1N4bytJYUhZQT09 (701285)

Invited Speaker:
• What do you associate with “dementia”? Representing dementia in popular media, AI outputs and in conversation with people affected by dementia.
Emma Putland (Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University)

Recognising that how we communicate about health can both reflect and help to shape social attitudes and practices, this talk focuses on how dementia is represented amongst various spheres of public life. It begins by briefly contextualising some of the main ways that dementia and people with the syndrome are represented in contemporary UK culture, with a particular focus on popular media. Building on this, the talk considers how artificial intelligence (AI) models might generate images and character descriptions in response to dementia-oriented textual prompts, examining the social biases that are reproduced and sometimes even amplified by AI outputs. Finally, the talk reflects on the above representations in relation to conversations with fifty-one participants who were living with dementia, care partners and close family/friends. Here, the plurality of people’s representations of dementia and the people affected is evident, and the talk concludes with participant-informed recommendations for changing dementia representations to help challenge stigma and better reflect individuals’ lived realities.

Our next events on 16^th Nov 2023, 1-2pm

Location: IOE – 20 Bedford Way, Room W3.05

Talk:

• “I grew up speaking a sort of…alphabet soup”: rethinking NHS care through a multilingual lens. 

Emma Brooks, Institute of Education. Department of Culture, Communication & Media

Much of the prevailing research on the role of language in intercultural health communication, has been measured against the premise of fixed institutional, monocultural, monolingual/proficient user norms, where shared practices are often assumed (Sarangi & Roberts, 1999). In contrast, this talk calls for a reimagining of contemporary healthcare in the UK, where NHS data shows that staff are as likely to be as linguistically, ethnically, and socioculturally diverse as the patient populations they serve (House of Commons, 2022: NHS Workforce data, 2022). More recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of international healthcare professionals entering the UK workforce: in 2021, just under half of all midwives joining the NHS trained overseas, whereas over 50% of new medical graduates, who registered with the GMC, qualified outside the UK or the EEA (GMC, 2022; NMC, 2022). While it is important not to assume and conflate (inter)national or ethnolinguistic characteristics (Rosa and Flores, 2017), data suggests that the UK’s national health service is likely to comprise a number of multilingual staff.

This talk proposes that being able to draw on the linguistic skills of healthcare professionals may be to the advantage of diverse populations, many of whom are regularly and disproportionally represented in data recording adverse outcomes.  I draw on ethnographic observations of consultations and recent interviews with multilingual NHS professionals, to highlight the pragmatic and beneficial aspects of linguistic concordance between provider/patient. Thus, if patient wellbeing and comprehension are much improved, it becomes apparent that it may not be social actors who construct language(s) as a barrier, but the monolingual orientations of the systems within which they are obliged to operate. Nevertheless, in circumstances where (mis)understanding can have real-world clinical consequences, it is imperative that greater institutional consideration be given to the support and possible accreditation of multilingual health professionals. This will not only facilitate their visibility and demonstrate an appreciation of communication skills, but it will also recognise an invaluable contribution to advancing parity of care.

References 
General Medical Council (2022). The State of Medical Education and Practice in the UK: the Workforce Report 2022, General Medical Council (GMC) 
House of Commons – nationality of staff https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7783/ (accessed 16/02/2023) 
NHS Workforce Statistics, June 2022 [accessed 16/02/2023] 
NHS England/Primary Care Commissioning (2018). Guidance for commissioners: Interpreting and Translation Services in Primary Care [Accessed 16/02/2023] 
Nursing and Midwifery Council (2022). The NMC register, 1 April 2021-31 March 2022, Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) 
Rosa, J. and Flores, N. (2017) “Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective,” Language in Society. Cambridge University Press, 46(5), pp 621-647
Sarangi, S., & Roberts, C. (1999). The dynamics of interactional and institutional orders in work-related settings. Talk, work and institutional order: Discourse in medical, mediation and management settings, 1, 1-57.

Live stream link for those who can’t attend: (https://ucl.zoom.us/j/91423628654?pwd=SVBJbkZQbDdLalJKSEtZUEVTYVlSQT09 Passcode: 701285)

We would like to invite you to the first event in the UCL Health Communication Network’s seminar series for this academic year.

Date: 17^th Oct 2023, 1-2pm

Location: IOE – 20 Bedford Way, Room C3.14

Talk:

“But here in this country”: Interactional Competence for clinical communication in intercultural contexts

Dr. David Wei Dai, International Centre for Intercultural Studies, UCL Institute of Education, University College London  

Effective clinical communication is crucial to patient safety in healthcare. However in Australia alone, 500,000 patients are harmed by the hospitals they go to, with 95% of the incidents having a communication failure component (IC4CH, 2023). One reason why clinical communication can be challenging is that both patients and their health providers oftentimes need to navigate complex and sometimes differing and conflicting workplace and cultural norms, practices and beliefs, making clinical communication a form of Professional Intercultural Communication (PICC).

In this talk I first explicate the complexities of PICC, using discourse-based examples where two patients communicate with their dentists who share different cultural backgrounds. I then propose a theoretical model of PICC to differentiate the inference we make about one another and the practice we observe in each other in PICC. I argue the concept of Interactional Competence can bridge inference and practice, offering a route to assisting both health providers and their patients to co-develop the abilities in handling PICC. Using discourse data analysed through Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorization Analysis, I highlight how 1) understanding the interactional process of PICC, and 2) developing the ability to interact (Interactional Competence), are crucial to improving clinician-patient relationship and patient safety in PICC.

IC4CH. (2023). Introducing the International Consortium for Communication in Health Care. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/centres/centre-applied-linguistics/international-consortium-communication-health-care

Live stream link for those who can’t attend: (https://ucl.zoom.us/j/91423628654?pwd=SVBJbkZQbDdLalJKSEtZUEVTYVlSQT09

Passcode: 701285)

From October, we (Andrea Vaughan, Sinead Jackson, and Emma Brooks) will be running the UCL Health Communication Network seminar series again.

This is for UCL researchers (students and staff) to connect and find out about each other’s work across faculties. As last year, there will be monthly lunchtime seminars where UCL people share current/ongoing/just finished/just starting work in informal presentations. This year, we’re planning a mix of sessions some with two short 15mins presentations and others with one longer 30mins presentation, in both cases followed by discussion and chat/networking. The seminars will be in-person, but also live-streamed for those who can’t be there and open for anyone to attend.

The first three dates for your diaries are:

• 17th Oct 1-2pm
• 16th Nov 1-2pm
• 5th Dec 1-2pm

We are delighted that we already have some confirmed presenters for all the slots (details coming soon!), but there is room for one more short talk on 5^th December. If you would like to share your work with our friendly interdisciplinary group, please get in touch (z.demjen@ucl.ac.uk, sinead.jackson.21@ucl.ac.uk, andrea.vaughan.20@ucl.ac.uk).

The final event of the UCL Health Communication Network’s seminar series for this academic year will take place on 15^th June 2023, 1-2pm

Location: IOE – 20 Bedford Way, Room W3.04

(NB: entry to the building is from Bedford Way only, due to renovation works. You will need to go up one floor and then down again, following signs to the room.)

Talk:

Metaphors and metonymies as pillars of social life: discourses and understandings about cell and gene therapies 

Dr Edison Bicudo

Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Policy, Aston University, and Research Fellow at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, University College London

Abstract:

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The next UCL Health Communication Network’s seminar will take place on  18^th May 2023, 1-2pm

Location: IOE – 20 Bedford Way, Room W3.06 (note entry to the building is from Bedford Way only, due to renovation works)

Talks:

• Show RESPECT: Results from a mixed methods study testing different approaches to sharing trial results with participants

Annabelle South, Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology

Sharing trial results with participants is an ethical imperative but often does not happen. The Show RESPECT study tested three different approaches to sharing trial results with participants in an ovarian cancer treatment trial: webpages; posted printed summaries; and email list. We collected qualitative and quantitative data from trial participants and site staff involved in sharing results. This seminar will explore some of the key findings from both participants’ and site staff perspectives.

• Polarized discourses of abortion in English: Using corpora to explore semantic prosody and discursive salience

Beth Malory, Department of English Language & Literature

There is scant evidence of the role lexis plays in determining public attitudes to reproductive rights, despite linguistic issues being hotly contested within this domain. Official UK health documents in English now use termination of pregnancy (TOP) instead of abortion, prompting backlash from those concerned that avoidance perpetuates stigma. Without empirical research, it is difficult to draw conclusions about linguistic influence in this polarized, often vitriolic debate, however. This talk will present findings of corpus-based research intended to remedy this. Using the framework of semantic prosody and drawing upon salience theory, these findings indicate that abortion may perpetuate stigma and negative public attitudes towards reproductive rights.

Live stream link for those who can’t attend: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/93217430863?pwd=dXVxdTN0YkpwWVBNQ1IrVitaTCs4UT09 (Passcode: 421535)

The next seminar of the UCL Health Communication Network will take place on 29th March 1-2pm, in 20 Bedford Way, – Room 675

Talks:

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The next HCN seminar will take place on 25^th January 2023, 1-2pm

Location: UCL Foster Court, Room 235

Talks:

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Hello and a Happy New Year to everyone!

The professorial lecture by Carol Rivas (IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society) on 1^st Feburary may be of interest to many in this network:

Where external representations meet embodied experiences: a story of diverse methods and diverse voices in health and social care and education

In this lecture, Carol Rivas will explore how people who are marginalised because of identities as ethnically/racially different, abused, sick or disabled, navigate the worlds of health and community care and education. She will consider the communication work they do to express embodied experiences as societally accepted external representations and the structures that exclude them . She will also explore how professional staff should respond, when faced with this, to ensure they give the best care. Drawing on her different studies, methodologies and theoretical models, she will describe both problems and practical approaches that include diverse voices within research and practice. Future experiences can be improved for both practitioners and those they seek to support if the experiential knowledge that is so often subjugated becomes more visible through such approaches, less marginalised (more centred) and thence more accepted.

Please see further details in our Eventbrite page.

In the spring term our seminars will take place on Wednesdays 1-2pm on the following dates: 25^th Jan, 22^nd Feb, and 22^nd Mar.

We already have exciting talks lined up, including on the topics of vaccination discussions online and multimodal aspects of healthcare communication (titles and abstracts coming in the new year), but please do get in touch (z.demjen@ucl.ac.uk) if you would be up for sharing your work with the Network at one of our sessions. And as always feel free to send this message on to your colleagues and students at UCL who work on relevant topics.