High rising tunes in Australian english : the communicative function of L* and H* pitch accent onsets

This study was designed to establish the specific communicative function of both low (L*) and high (H*) pitch accent onsets with high rising tunes (HRTs), earlier established as a feature of Australian English. The data consisted of the dialogues of four female and four male adolescent speakers who were recorded while participating in the Map task. The discourse analysis involved the application of Pierrehumbert & Hirschberg's compositional theory of tune meaning. The study appears to support key aspects of Pierrehumbert & Hirschberg's theory: the results show overwhelmingly that the speakers used high (H*) pitch accents with new information and low (L*) pitch accents with information that was already part of the speaker and hearer's mutual beliefs. The findings suggest that the individual tones in a HRT each contribute to the overall meaning of an intonation contour, and that a close examination of intonation features within a developing communication context is crucial to understanding intonational meaning.23 page(s

Communicating in hospital emergency departments

Ineffective communication has been identified as the major cause of critical incidents in public hospitals in Australia. Critical incidents are adverse events leading to avoidable patient harm. This article discusses a study that focused on spoken interactions between clinicians and patients in the emergency department of a large, public teaching hospital in New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of the study was to identify successful and unsuccessful communication encounters. It combined two complementary modes of analysis: qualitative ethnographic analysis of the social practices of emergency department healthcare and discourse analysis of the talk between clinicians and patients. This allowed the researchers to analyse how talk is socially organised around healthcare practices and how language and other factors impact on the effectiveness of communication. The complex, high stress, unpredictable and dynamic work of emergency departments constructs particular challenges for effective communication. The article analyses patient–clinician interactions within the organisational and professional practices of the emergency department and highlights some systemic and communication issues. It concludes with some implications for the professional development of clinicians and an outline of ongoing research in emergency departments.10 page(s

Patient Safety: a tri-stratal interpretation of communicative risk in the Emergency Departments of public hospitals

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Engaging Emergency Medicine Influencers in Sex‐ and Gender‐based Medicine: Lessons Learned from the Sex and Gender Interest Group in Emergency Medicine and the SAEM Jeopardy Game

The Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine (SGEM) interest group of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) was established to increase research and to disseminate knowledge about the influence of sex and/or gender in acute care medicine and on patient outcomes. To help facilitate these goals, over the past 4 years, SGEM has created, delivered, and honed a Jeopardy-like scientific quiz game for the annual SAEM national meeting. Here we describe the SAEM Jeopardy Game's development, implementation, evolution, and outcomes as well as our targeted approach to access and engage emergency medicine stakeholders in its participation

Sex- or Gender-specific Differences in the Clinical Presentation, Outcome, and Treatment of SARS-CoV-2.

This review describes the sex and gender differences in COVID-19 presentation, treatment, and outcomes. We discuss the differences between the sexes in susceptibility to infection, the role of sex chromosomes on the body\u27s immunologic response and the influence of hormones on the body\u27s response to the virus. Additionally, the sex differences in clinical and laboratory presentation, complications of infection and outcomes, as well as differences in response to treatment and prevention are reviewed

Emergency communication: the discursive challenges facing emergency clinicians and patients in hospital emergency departments

Effective communication and interpersonal skills have long been recognized as fundamental to the delivery of quality health care. However, there is mounting evidence that the pressures of communication in high stress work areas such as hospital emergency departments (EDs) present particular challenges to the delivery of quality care. A recent report on incident management in the Australian health care system (NSW Health, 2005a) cites the main cause of critical incidents (that is, adverse events such as an incorrect procedure leading to patient harm), as being poor and inadequate communication between clinicians and patients. This article presents research that describes and analyses spoken interactions between health care practitioners and patients in one ED of a large, public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia. The research aimed to address the challenges and critical incidents caused by breakdowns in communication that occur between health practitioners and patients and by refining and extending knowledge of discourse structures, to identify ways in which health care practitioners can enhance their communicative practices thereby improving the quality of the patient journey through the ED. The research used a qualitative ethnographic approach combined with discourse analysis of audio-recorded interactions. Some key findings from the analysis of data are outlined including how the absence of information about processes, the pressure of time within the ED, divergent goals of clinicians and patients, the delivery of diagnoses and professional roles impact on patient experiences. Finally, the article presents an in-depth linguistic analysis on interpersonal and experiential patterns in the discursive practices of patients, nurses and doctors.28 page(s

Engaging Emergency Medicine Influencers in Sex- and Gender-based Medicine: Lessons Learned from the Sex and Gender Interest Group in Emergency Medicine and the SAEM Jeopardy Game.

The Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine (SGEM) interest group of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) was established to increase research and to disseminate knowledge about the influence of sex and/or gender in acute care medicine and on patient outcomes. To help facilitate these goals, over the past 4 years, SGEM has created, delivered, and honed a Jeopardy-like scientific quiz game for the annual SAEM national meeting. Here we describe the SAEM Jeopardy Game\u27s development, implementation, evolution, and outcomes as well as our targeted approach to access and engage emergency medicine stakeholders in its participation

Corpus-based SFL Research : quantitative insights into the construal of identity and experience in the Emergency Departments

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Incorporating Sex and Gender-based Medical Education Into Residency Curricula.

Background: Emergency medicine (EM) residents do not generally receive sex- and gender-specific education. There will be increasing attention to this gap as undergraduate medical education integrates it within their curriculum. Methodology: Members of the Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine (SGEM) Interest Group set out to develop a SGEM toolkit and pilot integrating developed components at multiple residency sites. The curriculum initiative involved a pre- and posttraining assessment that included basic demographics and queries regarding previous training in sex-/gender-based medicine (SGBM). It was administered to PGY-1 to -4 residents who participated in a 3-hour training session that included one small group case-based discussion, two oral board cases, and one simulation and group debriefing. Analysis: Components of the developed toolkit (https://www.sexandgenderhealth.org) were implemented at four unique SGEM Interest Group member residency programs. Residents ( Implications: The majority of EM residents who participated in this training program reported that they had limited instruction in this domain in medical school or residency. This initiative demonstrated a method that can be emulated for the incorporation of SGBM educational components into an EM residency training educational day. After training, the majority of residents who participated felt that their current practice would have benefited from further training in sex- and gender-based topics in residency