This special issue identifies three interrelated constructs--discourse, expertise, and the definition and management of risk--located in various healthcare sites: genetic counseling, nursing, and medical practice. The papers highlight the relationship between the management of risk situations and the nature of expertise displayed or achieved by practitioners and their patients/clients. The papers suggest that healthcare outcomes can be related closely to the quality of the discoursal encounters between professional practitioners and their patients/clients, and/or among professional practitioners themselves. Presenting differentiated goals and outcomes from a range of professional encounters, the research focuses on the resource of discoursal strategies drawn upon in the achievement of discoursal and professional goals by both professional and lay participants.

Communication and Professional Relationships in Healthcare Practice focuses on the crucial role that spoken interactions play in shaping relationships in contemporary healthcare practice. The authors apply theoretical concepts of communication to the workplace of healthcare, drawing upon scenarios based in the settings of clinical experience. The book presents a wide range of interactions (including consultations, team meetings, dialogues and casual conversations) between health professionals, their colleagues and their clients or patients in a variety of settings. Drawing on the latest research in applied linguistics and professional communication, the authors introduce readers to a number of approaches that can be used to analyse these interactions. Using these techniques, readers will discover exactly how central themes of healthcare practice (including trust, empathy, expertise and breaking bad news) are constructed through the communicative choices that participants make in these interactions. Designed specifically for medical, nursing and allied health practitioners with an interest in communication, the book makes the techniques of discourse analysis accessible and provides ample opportunities for individual practitioners to apply this knowledge to their own professional contexts.