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The application of communication accommodation theory to understand receiver reactions in healthcare speaking up interactions
Barlow, Melanie Watson, Bernadette Jones, Elizabeth Morse, Catherine Maccallum, Fiona
Barlow, Melanie
Watson, Bernadette
Jones, Elizabeth
Morse, Catherine
Maccallum, Fiona
Abstract
Speaking up for patient safety is a well-documented, complex communication interaction, which is challenging both to teach and to implement into practice. In this study we used Communication Accommodation Theory to explore receivers’ perceptions and their self-reported behaviors during an actual speaking up interaction in a health context. Intergroup dynamics were evident across interactions. Where seniority of the participants was salient, the within-profession interactions had more influence on the receiver’s initial reactions and overall evaluation of the message, compared to the between profession interactions. Most of the seniority salient interactions occurred down the hierarchy, where a more senior professional ingroup member delivered the speaking up message to a more junior receiver. These senior speaker interactions elicited fear and impeded the receiver’s voice. We found that nurses/midwives and allied health clinicians reported using different communication behaviors in speaking up interactions. We propose that the term “speaking up” be changed, to emphasize receivers’ reactions when they are spoken up to, to help receivers engage in more mutually beneficial communication strategies.
Keywords
clinicians, communication accommodation theory, healthcare communication, patient safety, receiver, safety voice, social identity, speaking up
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
38
Issue
1
Page Range
42-51
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permitsunrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow theposting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permitsunrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow theposting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.