The Discourse of Hospital Communication

Bringing together recent international research in the field of hospital communication and interaction, this book contextualises clinical-professional work by focusing on the rising intensity of information and communication practices in organisations generally, and in health care in particular. The contributions show how hospital work is performed and communicated, and what the hospital's extreme organisational complexity means for traditional approaches to discourse analysis, communication research and activity theory. Work is also presented from a group of clinician and health services researchers who have turned to using language-based and micro-sociological research methods. The result is a rich resource for students and scholars in both applied linguistics and management, interested in discourse analysis and professional communication. The book will also appeal to researchers and students in the field of health research more broadly, acquainting them with approaches to a detailed analysis of hospital-clinical interaction and communication.