Meet Australia’s SHAPE EMCRs – Dr Sarah White

Meet the extraordinary Doctor of Conversation: Dr Sarah White is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Social Impact UNSW (CSI UNSW), and is a conversation analyst and qualitative health researcher. Her research focus is on improving communication between clinicians and patients.

How did you come to be a linguist and health communication researcher?

I’ve always had an interest in languages and aspects of language like talking and writing. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study for my undergraduate and was tossing up between a health course and arts. I ended up completing a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Linguistics and Spanish and Latin American Studies.

My interest in health had grown as I have a chronic health problem that resulted in a lot of conversations with health professionals as a patient during my undergraduate study.

By the end of my degree, my interest in health had grown as I have a chronic health problem that resulted in a lot of conversations with health professionals as a patient during my undergraduate study. I’d studied conversation analysis in second year and fourth year and developed an interest in applying that method to communication in healthcare. Following my honours, I started to look for opportunities to do this. As a matter of luck, the Applied Research on Communication in Health group at the University of Otago, Wellington presented at a general practice conference which my father, who is a general practitioner, was attending. A connection was made and I was able to start my doctoral research on surgeon-patient communication in mid-2006.

Tell us about your research 

My research focuses on the “how” of communication in healthcare. I primarily examine how consultations between doctors and patients are structured, although I do some work in other health and institutional settings. I use a method called conversation analysis which involves closely analysing recordings of real consultations. I try to design my research to include development of practical strategies to improve communication.

Why does your work matter?

Often when I tell people what I research, people share stories with me of their experiences as a patient. These are usually bad experiences of a time when communication was less than ideal. Beyond stories, we know that ineffective communication is a major cause of patient complaints and dissatisfaction, of unsafe and disjointed care, and of clinician frustration. Luckily communication is not an art – there are norms that make communication possible and as analysts we can research these and identify communication practices that are more effective. This can help in the development of evidence-based policy and training. 

Luckily communication is not an art – there are norms that make communication possible and as analysts we can research these and identify communication practices that are more effective.

What do you love most about being a researcher in healthcare communication and linguistics?

It’s interesting! I love conversation analysis – it’s fun and has a great community. And while I dabble in topics outside of healthcare communication, I can see so much value in translating the findings of CA to improve communication in clinical practice.

What are you working on now or intending to do next?

I’ve got quite a few different projects on the go! My main projects are on telehealth in general practice, health literacy in practice, and pain and clinical conversations. I’m also working on several smaller collaborative projects at present with researchers, clinicians, higher degree research students, and medical students. There are a few different directions I’d like to go, such as working on projects using diagnostic conversation analysis and extending work from current projects.

What’s the one aspect you find most challenging about being an EMCR?

There’s not enough time to do everything I want to do. I’m learning to be more realistic with how many projects to take on and figuring out which ones have more flexible timeframes. 

What’s one piece of advice/trick/tip you have for ECRs?

There isn’t one right way to have a career path and there are many ways to work in research within and outside of academia! And just because you leave doesn’t mean you can’t come back.