[forwarded message]
FRIDAY 11 APRIL 2008 3.00 - 4.30 PM
Talk, Texts and Action: Communication challenges in hospital emergency
departments
Speaker: Dr Hermine Scheeres, University of Technology, Sydney
Venue: Room 7.73 E C Stoner Building, (by the Visitors' Entrance),
Ground Floor , Level 7
Attendance: FREE
(REFRESHMENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE AFTER THE SEMINAR)
Our personal and professional daily lives are saturated with
communicative practices. Learning how to 'do' communication and how to
'be' particular kinds of people in a range of contexts and domains are
constant challenges. These challenges go beyond learning specific modes
of speaking and writing to participating in these communicative
activities as situated social practices. In organizations, social
practices produce particular speaking, listening, reading and writing
relationships and performances, and particular language, texts,
discourses and identities are privileged.
In her talk, Hermine Scheeres will discuss some of the communicative
practices - the 'doings' and 'beings' emerging from research that she
and her colleagues have been doing in hospital emergency departments in
NSW, Australia. Institutions such as hospitals, and emergency
departments within hospitals, are commonly understood primarily as sites
of action where bio-medical activities that promote and produce healthy
bodies are the dominant concerns. At the same time, there is
recognition that effective communication is vital in every hospital
corridor and ward. The emergency department is a high stress hub of
integrated action and communication where problems, or 'critical
incidents', are often tracked back to poor (sometimes systemic) spoken
and / or written communication practices.
Key research findings from clinician interviews, health care
practitioner and patient recordings, observations and discourse
(language) analysis will be outlined. Examples will be drawn from spoken
and written information and explanations given to patients; questioning
techniques and diagnostic delivery practices of clinical staff; location
and forms of signage, forms and other written texts; hierarchies and
roles of patients and clinicians; the effects of hospital systems, time
pressures and interruptions on communicative practices. Finally, the
presentation poses some ideas and questions regarding ways of
understanding the relationship between organisational cultures and
practices, and modes of communication.
Dr Hermine Scheeres is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of
Education, University of Technology, Sydney. She has worked for over 30
years in TAFE colleges and universities in Australia and overseas in the
fields of adult education, applied linguistics, and language and
literacy education. Hermine uses ethnographic and discourse analytic
approaches to research culture, communication, identity and learning,
particularly in workplaces and organisations. She is currently a chief
investigator on two Australian Research Council-funded projects, one
focussing on communication flows in hospital emergency departments, and
the second focussing on relationships between employee and
organisational learning across a range of workplaces. Hermine is a
co-editor of the international journal Literacy and Numeracy Studies and
her publications cross the disciplinary areas and fields of practice of
Organisation Studies, Applied Linguistics and Literacy, and Adult
Learning.
To print off a booking form, please check the website linke
http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~aedjb/Bookingform11April2008.pdf
or contact me to book a place (email [log in to unmask]). Thank
you.
Best wishes
Jas
Jaswant Bhavra (Mrs)
Institute Secretary
Lifelong Learning Institute
Room 7.51, E C Stoner Building
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
Telephone: 0113 343 3417
Fax: 0113 343 3246
Email: [log in to unmask]
Visit the Lifelong Learning Institute web site
http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/research/lifelong/
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