Exploring Clinical Communication in Asia

Culture, Discipline, Best Practice and Clinicians’ Voices in the Chinese Context

Jack Pun, Audrey Chan

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781350298125
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Drawing on socially-oriented functional linguistics, this book offers a detailed and systematic overview of the role that language plays in clinician-patient communication in Asian contexts. Putting forward a communication model specific to this particular sociocultural and medical setting, it provides clear and research-driven recommendations for healthcare professionals. Building on cutting-edge empirical research on the health communication landscape in Asia, this book addresses topics of interest to researchers in health communication and applied linguistics more broadly. It also provides healthcare professionals with the resources necessary for a critical reflection of their professional practice. The book makes use of data gathered through a variety of methods, including audio and video recordings of clinician-patient communication, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographic observations. It also uses a cross-disciplinary approach, combining the expertise of linguists, clinicians and health communication researchers, to identify communication features of effective and ineffective interactions, focusing on the communication breakdowns and vulnerable points which jeopardize the quality and safety of the patient experience.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Figures
• Foreword
• What is effective clinical research in East Asian contexts?
• Researching East Asian health communication: A translational approach
• Part I: Insights from interviews with clinicians
• Cultural influences: How to interpret Eastern medical communication?
• In practice: Building the Chinese model of patient-centred care in Hong Kong
• Improving health literacy in the East
• Building trusting relationships between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners and patients
• Interpersonal support
• Si-zhen: Wàng, wén, wèn and qiè as patient-centred examination
• Touch to understand
• A summary of the communication flow in TCM consultations
• Learning from TCM’s metaphorical and physical touches: Insights for non-Asian doctors to show empathy and give support
• Why is End-Of-Life (EOL) communication in Chinese contexts ineffective?
• Factors that define the nature of EOL communication in Chinese contexts: The underlying Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist philosophies behind the concept of a ‘good death’
• Communicative strategies for oncologists
• The significance of communication in neurology: Asian contexts
• Communication challenges and key factors: Neurologist-patient interactions
• Asian cultural expectations in neurologist-patient communication
• Communication strategies in Asian contexts
• Introduction: Surgeons’ communication challenges and the significance of effective communication
• What does effective communication entail in the context of surgery in Hong Kong?
• The case of Hong Kong: Chinese cultural expectations
• Communication strategies for surgeons in Asian contexts
• Researching Asian-specific features and adapting to cultural norms in nursing communication
• Characteristics and challenges of nursing communication in Asia and Hong Kong
• Tackling nursing communication challenges
• Implications and future research trends in nursing communication: The applications of technology
• Introduction: Low literacy in end-of-life (EOL) care
• Cultural differences: Varying attitudes towards DNR and ACP in Western and various Asian contexts
• The importance of encouraging ACP for patients’ quality of life
• Challenges in geriatric communication in Asian contexts
• Recommended strategies
• Chapter 9: Veterinary perspectives: Multilingual and culturally sensitive communication
• Part II: Skills for effective clinical communication
• Why is communication in high-risk settings important?
• Why should clinicians speak up in high-risk clinical contexts?
• How to motivate clinicians to speak up? What makes them speak up?
• Advocating the speak-up culture in Chinese medical settings
• What about the patients? Do clinicians understand the needs of what mechanically ventilated patients want to say?
• The scope of communication needs of MV patients
• Skills to involve MV patients in active conversations about medical, non-medical and psycho-emotional matters
• Challenges faced by ED clinicians in Hong Kong medical contexts
• How to tackle these issues and build trusting relationships between ED clinicians and patients
• Challenges to effective communication in primary care
• Addressing communication challenges in primary care
• Communication skills training for cultural differences
• Building trust and rapport in primary care
• Cultural contexts and communication challenges in nursing handover
• Communication protocol for structured nursing handover
• Key communication skills in nursing handover
• Key information for clinicians to consider when teaching nursing handover in Chinese context
• Technological integration in nursing handover communication
• The impact of language proficiency on nursing handover
• Patient involvement in nursing handovers
• Characteristics of medical communication in East Asian settings and Hong Kong
• Implementing culturally appropriate patient-centred care in East Asia
• Discipline-specific tactics for communication: Researching the multilingual clinical contexts of Hong Kong through interviews
• Solving hierarchy in clinician-to-clinician relationships across disciplines in Hong Kong
• The power dynamics between patients and their families: The influences of collectivist and individualist values in Hong Kong
• A guide for local practitioners: Tailoring difficult conversations according to cultural backgrounds
• How to build rapport between practitioners and patients in Hong Kong
• References
• Index