A discourse approach to patient expertise in the management of invisible conditions

Authors

  • Agnieszka Sowinska 1. Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile 2. Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3684-7129
  • Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4151/S0718-0934202401150889

Keywords:

discourse analysis, patient expertise, self-management, medical consultations, invisible conditions, university students

Abstract

Invisible disabilities, which are not immediately apparent, encompass mental, cognitive and physical conditions, impairing daily activities. Promoting the self-management of these chronic conditions has been the central aim of healthcare systems around the world. Analysing medical consultations with student patients at a university healthcare facility in Chile, we propose a framework that identifies the themes, sub-themes and indexes that embody the identity work of expert patients with invisible chronic conditions. The paper explores the complexity of the resources and doctor-patient alignments used to perform patient expertise in natural interactions and the central role of experiential knowledge in self-diagnosis and the management of invisible illnesses.

Author Biographies

Agnieszka Sowinska, 1. Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile 2. Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

Agnieszka Sowińska is Assistant Professor at the Department of Experimental Linguistics at Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU), Poland and Associate Professor at the School of English at Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile. She has been collaborating with GPs within the European General Practice Research Network, Research Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Talca, Chile, and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Modern Technologies at NCU, Poland, conducting various projects in healthcare communication. Her present research focuses on the discourse of students with invisible disabilities in doctor-patient communication.

Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar, Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile

Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar is a research associate of the Language in the Workplace Project, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is also a researcher, the vice-president of the Ethics Committee and a lecturer in the PhD Programmes of Education and of Psychology at Universidad Católica del Maule (UCM), Chile. Mariana is also a member of a number of MA programmes such as MA in Mental Health and in Nursing at UCM. Mariana’s research has focused on healthcare communication, including nurses’ construction of professional identity, an evaluation of doctors’ feedback and the co-construction of narratives in the doctor-patient interview.

Downloads

Published

2024-08-05

How to Cite

Sowinska, A., & Lazzaro-Salazar, M. (2024). A discourse approach to patient expertise in the management of invisible conditions. Revista Signos. Estudios De Lingüística, 57(115), 571–593. https://doi.org/10.4151/S0718-0934202401150889

Issue

Vol. 57 No. 115 (2024): August

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Revista Signos. Estudios de Lingüística

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright agreement:

Authors who have a manuscript accepted for publication in this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors will retain their copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication of their work by means of this copyright agreement document, which is subject to the Creative Commons Acknowledgment License that allows third parties to share the work provided that its author and first publication in this journal are indicated.

  2. Authors may adopt other non-exclusive license agreements for distribution of the published version of the work (e.g., depositing it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a monographic volume) as long as the initial publication in this journal is indicated.

  3. Authors are allowed and encouraged to disseminate their work via the internet (e.g., in institutional publications or on their website) before and during the submission process, which can lead to interesting exchanges and increase citations of the published work (read more here).