Qualitative Health Communication

Mask making on social media: Women’s mask making practices and advocacy during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mildred Perreault — 2023-01-30

Background: COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus SARS-COV-2, can create serious respiratory problems, or even death, for those affected. Individuals who share messages about its risks and related risk reduction behaviors have the potential to make a broader health impact. Early in the pandemic, some individuals made homemade masks to address the limited supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and posted about their efforts on social media. Aim: To understand the grassroots application of the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) theoretical model concerning effective messages in early phases of a crisis. Methods: Using both individual interviews and observations, researchers conducted a study of 15 Appalachian women making masks during the Covid-19 pandemic and analyzed 9 of their social media accounts. Results: Through interviews and observations, the researchers gained understanding as to how mask makers used social media to create and distribute masks and engage their communities. Social media messages often contained calls to action, personal connections to the issue, and supported the mask makers’ efforts to reach a broader network of individuals. Discussion: An evaluation of the grassroots efforts of mask makers extends the CERC framework to the individual level. Conclusions: This study provides insight into the role of grassroots health advocacy, and the role of user-generated social media messaging in pandemic risk reduction.

Teachers’ perspectives on communication in the context of supervising learners during telehealth encounters

Kelly Skelly — 2023-01-30

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased use of telehealth for healthcare visits. Telehealth visits have created new communication challenges for clinician-patient encounters and for interactions between health professional learners and clinical teachers, known as preceptors. Little research has explored how teachers can effectively supervise and explicitly emphasize communication skills during telehealth visits. Aim: This study’s purpose was to explore clinical preceptors’ perspectives on effective approaches in precepting telehealth visits with medical residents and students. Methods: An online survey elicited comments from clinical preceptors from two United States medical schools on effective telehealth teaching practices. Thematic analysis identified salient perspectives and overall guidance on precepting telehealth encounters. Results: Survey participants reported varying levels of experience with precepting telehealth visits. Main areas identified as important for effectively supervising telehealth encounters and facilitating effective communication included explicit preparation for preceptors, learners and patients and using educational opportunities, especially observation, during the telehealth encounter. Discussion: This study identifies strategies for maximizing effective communication between preceptors, learners, and patients during supervised telehealth visits. Participants identified potential educational advantages of supervising telehealth visits. Conclusions: Clinical teachers can reinforce effective telehealth communication skills with learner led telehealth patient encounters.

The emergence and management of embodied dilemmas in psychotherapeutic interaction: a qualitative study

Sarah Bro Trasmundi — 2023-01-30

In this article we take an embodied and interactional perspective on how ethical dilemmas are being managed in situated interaction. Accordingly, we aim at linking ethical principles to real-life clinical practices in order to show how ethical dilemmas are less about abstract decision-making, and more about reasoning constrained by inter-bodily dynamics, affect and adaptive behaviour in situated interaction. We present two real-life cases of ethical dilemma management in a psychotherapeutic setting. We use the innovative method, Cognitive Event Analysis, to investigate the interaction in which the dilemmas emerge. The analytical findings, we claim, pave the way for a more embodied code of ethics, which, in turn, has consequences for the theoretical assumptions that inform the models and guidelines for action in practice.

Communicating knowledge and embodied experiences of personal menstrual cup use through YouTube

Elizabeth Sillence — 2023-01-30

Background: Despite being a normal part of life for many, menstruation is often stigmatized resulting in reduced knowledge of reusable products such as menstrual cups. YouTube videos can raise awareness of menstrual cups and challenge stigma, but little is known about the content creators or what content is communicated in the videos. Aim: Firstly, to examine vlogger characteristics and the content of videos sharing personal experiences of cup use. Secondly, to evaluate the potential of these videos as a way of communicating about menstrual health. Methods: A content analysis of the 100 most popular menstrual cup videos on YouTube followed by a qualitative thematic analysis of 50 videos containing personal experiences. Results: The content of the videos was captured in four themes: embodied knowledge; technology enabled intimacies; persuasive narratives and a collective sense of community. Discussion: Vloggers communicated knowledge and embodied experiences of personal cup use. This represents a step towards destigmatizing menstruation and menstruants’ bodies, but issues around the complexities of vloggers’ motivations and the situatedness of vloggers remain. Conclusions: Given the paucity of information on menstruation and reusable menstrual products, YouTube videos provide a potentially valuable resource for health communication and education especially for younger menstruants.

A discourse analysis of suicide ideation assessment among first year health professional students enrolled in a communications course

Trena Paulus — 2023-01-30

Background: Suicide risk assessments require a complex set of skills around a sensitive matter which can be difficult for providers. Aim: Research investigating communication techniques and the language choices used to assess for suicide ideation is limited. Methods: We analyzed 121 video-recorded and transcribed final exams from a communication skills course for first year health professional students to identify patterns and variation in the language choices made to assess for suicidal ideation in standardized patients exhibiting symptoms of depression. Results: We found that 66 of the 121 (55%) interviews included a suicide assessment. We noted key patterns and variation around when the assessments took place (while exploring depressive symptoms or as a topic shift), how they were prefaced (with ubiquity statements, normalization statements, or expressions of care and concern), and how the question itself was structured (with a negative preference structure, in a non-polar format, or ambiguously). Conclusions: Assessing for suicide is a delicate task for both patients and providers, both of whom may be reluctant to engage around the topic. Utilizing normalization statements as well as statements of care and concern is a good approach to assess suicide idation while exploring depressive symptoms.

Choosing COVID-19 treatment over prevention through vaccination: A U.S. social media case study

Stuart Williams — 2023-01-30

Background: This study examined anti-vaccination social media posts that favored COVID-19 treatment (monoclonal antibodies (mAbs)) rather than prevention through vaccination, both of which were under Emergency Use Authorization rather than full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at the time of this study. Our research stemmed from participation in a U.S. public health education campaign led by a coalition of government agencies to expand provider and health system use of mAbs with high-risk COVID-19 positive patients. Aim: Inform real world communication strategies for treatment over prevention therapies. Methods: We analyzed the most-engaged tweets that mentioned mAbs and vaccines from March 1 to August 31, 2021. Results: Our qualitative analysis identified the following themes: distrust in science, individualism, and politically oriented or partisan sentiment. Discussion: Countering anti-vaccine messages and reducing the susceptibility of vaccine-hesitant individuals to these messages must involve message design that considers the individualism and distrust revealed in this study. We recommend two approaches: (1) unmasking anti-vaccine messaging techniques; (2) using colloquial and values-driven language. Conclusions: Our findings reinforce the need for public health practitioners to monitor public and social media discourse, adopt messaging that navigates anti-vaccine sentiment, and engage with the preference for treatment over prevention.

Editorial. Opening the doors of perception – QHC as a fee-free open access journal

Sarah White — 2023-01-30