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Biomedical subjects

Simon Cocksedge

Publications and source records attributed to Simon Cocksedge.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Breaking bad news: qualitative evaluation of an interprofessional learning opportunity.

This paper analyses the effects of bringing together a small group of nursing and medical students to learn the skills needed to break bad news to patients. It outlines the qualitative and quantitative methods used, to provide the reader with a comprehensive account of the teaching, learning and research strategies drawn on during the study. The paper examines the evaluation phase, as this aspect is of greatest import if such initiatives are to flourish. The facet of the study analysed in detail concerns the students' responses to the open-ended qualitative questionnaires. In coding the data, three researchers independently highlighted a series of themes associated with the benefits and hazards of nursing and medical students learning and working together. Finally, the paper closes by arguing that trust and mutual respect are vital ingredients if collaborative working is to become part of the medical and nursing curriculum.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed2005

The listening loop: a model of choice about cues within primary care consultations.

BACKGROUND: As well as hearing a story at the start of an interaction, listening in medicine involves picking up and checking out patients' cues. Despite this, cues are frequently missed or ignored by doctors. AIM: To explore the perceptions of general practitioners (GPs) about initiating listening and choosing not to listen during interactions. STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative study constant comparison. Methods General practitioners with over 5 years' experience in practice in a semi-rural area of England took part in a single, semistructured, audiotaped interview which was piloted initially. Interviews were transcribed and analysed according to the precepts of constant comparison. RESULTS: In total, 23 of 24 eligible doctors participated. The data emphasise the importance of spotting cues during interactions. Factors influencing judgements on whether or not to attend to cues included pressure of work, the doctor's mood or feelings about the patient, and the context of the interaction. Methods of limiting, blocking or resisting listening included reassuring, changing the subject, interrupting, being directive or making a plan, reducing sympathy and using body language. A tramline metaphor of choice in listening emerged (the listening loop: a definite period of listening by the GP within the interaction, generally separate to hearing the patient's initial story). CONCLUSION: The listening loop offers a simple model of listening that emphasises choice and judgement in response to patients' cues within interactions. Emphasising this choice highlights both picking up cues and pragmatic limits and resistance to attending to them, with implications for teaching.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2005

Pastoral relationships and holding work in primary care: affect, subjectivity and chronicity.

OBJECTIVES: To understand family doctors' constructs of long-term therapeutic relationships with patients in primary care. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were administered to general practitioners with > 5 years of experience (n = 28) working in an English semi-rural district, and the results were subjected to constant comparative qualitative analysis. RESULTS: Participants identified pastoral relationships as long-standing patterns of doctor-patient interaction aimed at providing reliable supportive care indirectly concerned with clinical medicine. Holding work was identified as a technique for structuring and delivering care within pastoral relationships. Pastoral relationships and holding work were seen as valuable in the affective management of people with long-standing chronic illness, especially mild-to-moderate depression and anxiety. DISCUSSION: At a time when primary care is undergoing significant structural change, respondents in this study laid emphasis on personal and continuing relationships with patients who had diffuse needs connected with the experience of complex and chronic problems, and their accounts intimately connected life events with health status. Importantly, these accounts suggest that such relationships are hard to define and therefore hard to measure, but have important therapeutic purposes.

Chronic Disease↗