Use of linguistic communication strategies (hedges and intensifiers) in simulated pharmacy education shared decision-making.

Abstract

Effective communication not only prevent medication errors, but also contributes to improving patients’ recovery and quality of life. Brown and Levinson’s Politeness theory ‘politeness’ refers to showing awareness of and consideration for another person’s face (public self-image), often achieved through linguistic strategies such as hedges and intensifiers to minimise the possibility of threatening someone’s face and causing distress or embarrassment. Hedging is a word/phrase that help softening the communication and make a statement less assertive to avoid disagreement whereas intensifiers are words/phrases that help strengthen the meaning of other expressions and to show emphasis. Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a well-known assessment tool for evaluating the application of clinical knowledge and communication skills. This study utilised the consequence free simulated nature of the OSCE to understand how pharmacy students communicate to carers and doctors whether there is a disagreement, with a view to inform communication teaching strategies to prepare students for practice