Ruth Parry
Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Contact
Expertise Summary
Recent Research Supervisees
Dr Helena Webb, now Mildred Blaxter Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Kings College London. PhD "Doctor-Patient Interactions during medical consultations about obesity". Completed and awarded. PhD here: http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/818/. Publication in Sociology of Health and Illness here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2009.01188.x/full. Co-supervisors Prof A Pilnick, Prof R Dingwall. Ms Jo Gladwin University of Brighton, professional doctorate The interactional phenomenon of empathy in the musculoskeletal physiotherapeutic encounter: A study of empathic communication using Conversation Analysis. Viva 2011, minimal amendments required and these are nearing completion. Co-supervisor Prof Ann Moore Ms Veronika Schoeb Mezzanotte 'Conversation analysis of patient physiotherapist interaction in an orthopaedic outpatient setting'. Part time PhD. In progress. Co-supervisor Prof A Pilnick. Details here - http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sociology/research/pgprofiles/schoeb.aspx. Publication in Manual Therapy here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1356689X09000447
Teaching Summary
Qualitative research methods, data collection and analysis - particularly for those with initial strong grounding in quantitative methods. I teach a module on qualitative research methods and… read more
Research Summary
I research healthcare communication. Most of my work entails making and analysing recordings of consultations, meetings and episodes of care. I use a social science research approach called… read more
Selected Publications
PARRY, R.H., 2010. Video-based conversation analysis. In: BOURGEAULT, I., DINGWALL, R. and DE VRIES, R., eds., The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Methods in Health Research London: Sage. 373-396
Qualitative research methods, data collection and analysis - particularly for those with initial strong grounding in quantitative methods. I teach a module on qualitative research methods and analysis on Nottingham's Masters of Public Health Programme
Clinical reasoning - from the patient-professional communication perspective
Conversation analysis
Communication skills training
Current Research
I research healthcare communication. Most of my work entails making and analysing recordings of consultations, meetings and episodes of care. I use a social science research approach called conversation analysis. I also research the effectiveness and provision of communication skills training for healthcare practitioners and trainees.
I am particularly interested in:
- how people approach, discuss and explain complicated, delicate and distressing matters during healthcare consultations, treatments and meetings
- how patients and carers are encouraged to contribute during consultations and meetings
- communication about and with the body in the course of healthcare
- systematic review and synthesis of evidence from conversation analytic and discursive psychology research
Current and past PhD students have focused on goal-setting during physiotherapy, communication in relation to doctors' treatment of obesity, and empathy as an interactional phenomenon rather than a psychological property in healthcare consultations. I am keen to supervise PhD students whose plans involve applying ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, and those interested in healthcare communication - particularly where they see the merit of working with observational rather than solely interview data.
Past Research
My early research career entailed work on a randomised controlled trial of a rehabilitation intervention for the arm and hand after stroke. My masters dissertation involved a small scale qualitative interview study of stroke patients' and physiotherapists' perceptions of upper limb recovery and treatment after stroke. My PhD and postdoc studies included video-based conversation analytic studies that examined various aspects of communication between physiotherapists and stroke patients.
Future Research
A pilot study involving recording and analysing episodes of interpersonal communication during palliative and end of life planning and care is at the stage of ethics and governance application. I am keen to develop links with others interested in similar projects.
I am currently conducting systematic review and synthesis of evidence from conversation analytic and discursive psychology studies. Two syntheses are in progress, one examines how people talk to one another about difficult and uncertain future issues, the other examines evidence on practices that encourage patient and carer contributions and participation in decision making in healthcare.