ABSTRACT
Through the methodological focus on ‘language as action’ (Drew and Heritage, 1992), the communicative style of nurses and other health care professionals is the central focus of the data in this chapter. The style of communication used by professionals with patients serves as a means of either facilitating or inhibiting autonomous action. As outlined in chapter 4, it is through the focus on the structure of language and the style of communication used by nurses and other members of the health care team that initial themes were identified from the data. The participants’ orientation to social institutions (professional groupings), as either representatives or clients of the institution (Drew and Heritage, 1992), as demonstrated through the style of interactions, is the focus of this chapter. Participants in the ‘expert nurses focus group’ and ‘the patients focus group’ validated the initial themes and provided them with ‘labels’.
