Background: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in rapid changes to head and neck cancer (HNC) services. Multidisciplinary team (MDT) face-to-face appointments were converted to telehealth appointments (telephone and video-call) to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The literature exploring HNC patient experience of these appointment types is…

Background; In the UK, there is increasing pressure on ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinicians and departments, which is anticipated to amplify in the coming months and years due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and other workforce pressures. In the context of a national drive to advance practice of Allied Health Professionals to address…

This article examines interactions between callers to a health helpline and specialist nurses. Helpline call-takers must judge the appropriate moment to move from listening to the caller's problem to offering them the appropriate service. In a study of Parkinson's UK nurse call-takers, we find that the pivot is the point at which the caller…

The paper develops the concept of language awareness (LA) by considering the material-social-discursive nexus of the communicative situation that affords professional practice. It also presents a mixed-methods study that provides a deeper and multi-layered understanding of LA in action and sets out a methodological framework for similar research…

Researching in heterogeneous communities can present challenges for the most experienced of researchers, especially in the context of ethnographic work, where the dynamism and unpredictability of a research setting can make it difficult to anticipate the languages spoken. Drawing on data from multilingual health consultations, I reflect on…

Background: The need to review health service provision for children and young people (CYP) with disabilities and their families in the United Kingdom has been expressed in multiple reports--the most consistent message being that services need to be tailored to meet their individual needs. Our aim was to understand the hospital-related needs and…

This paper explores how personal experience acquires the status of knowledge and/or evidence in contemporary healthcare contexts that emphasise being both patient-centred and evidence-based. Drawing on a comparative analysis of three case studies -- self-help and mutual aid groups; online patient activism; and patient feedback in healthcare…

Student mental health is an issue of growing concern. Past research indicates that many students are not accessing the support they require, which may in part be due to issues surrounding the standards of the available services. Using a participatory framework, the current study utilised a mixed-methods design to examine student experiences of…

The study presented in this article explores to what extent and in what ways the communication between clinicians and patients on Ask-the-Expert healthcare websites is patient-centred. It further demonstrates the value of using a theory- and text-driven discourse analytical approach for the analysis of verbal communication in a (specific health)…

There is conflict between the views projected by nurses and by policy directives about what constitutes care and caring. While there is a plethora of works on the conceptualization of care and caring, the influence of discourse remains unexplored. There is a small number of studies from the perspective of social constructionism, but very few take…

Specialist intellectual disability inpatient units have come under increased scrutiny, leading to questions about the quality of service provision in this sector. A care pathway-based approach was implemented in such a unit and its impact on outcome variables was measured. The care pathway-based approach resulted in the turnover of more patients,…

It has been well documented that people with learning disabilities receive poor care in acute settings. Over the last few years, a number of learning disability liaison nurse services have developed in the United Kingdom as a response to this, but there has been a failure to systematically gather evidence as to their effectiveness. This article…

In the UK, quality of care has now been placed at the centre of the National Health Service (NHS) modernisation programme. To date, there has been little research on the service quality delivery of alcohol treatment services from the perspective of both the service user and service provider. Therefore, this qualitative study explored the…

Learning to ensure patient safety in complex health care environments is an internationally recognised concern. This article explores and compares Finnish (n = 22) and British (n = 32) pre-registration nursing students' important learning events about patient safety from their work placements in health care organisations. Written descriptions were…

Background: To quantify the costs and consequences of managing phenylketonuria (PKU) in the UK and to estimate the potential implications to the UK's National Health Service (NHS) of keeping patients on a phenylalanine-restricted diet for life. Methods: A computer-based model was constructed depicting the management of PKU patients over the first…