Project Duration
July 2009 - August 2011
Funder
Swiss National Science Foundation
Project Staff
- Veronika Schoeb (PI) 1
- Liliane Staffoni 1
- Prof Alison Pilnick 2
- Dr Ruth Parry 2
- Dr Nima Moghaddam 1
Staff Institutions
- HEVC Sante Lausanne
- The University of Nottingham
Aims
This study aims to examine decision-making processes during early consultations between physiotherapists and patients with musculo-skeletal conditions in French Swiss physiotherapy clinics.
Methods
Conversation analytic study of recorded naturally occurring interaction in Swiss-French musculoskeletal physiotherapy consultations.
Outcomes and Findings
Approximately 50 consultations have now been video-recorded. Analysis is led by Swiss researchers, in consultation with Ruth Parry (NMP University of Nottingham) and Alison Pilnick (Sociology and Social Policy University of Nottingham). Papers reporting the findings are currently being drafted.
Findings include observations about how formal examination recording sheets shape and influence when and how therapists establish patients' goals. Therapists vary in how closely they follow the ordering and wording instantiated in the formal recording sheets, and that more close following of what is specified on the form often results in problems in eliciting patients' views in ways that are helpful in establishing goals.
Another finding is that in first consultations, therapists and patients both orient to establishing physical 'facts' about their conditions, and physical 'solutions' to these - using Mischler's terms, both seem to orient to the importance of the medical rather than the 'lifeworld'. In contrast, during subsequent consultations, matters of the lifeworld - psychosocial elements - are raised and discussed by both parties.