Corridor Conversations: Clinical Communication in Casual Spaces

Abstract

Corridor consultations are ‘part of the daily discourse of hospital medicine’ (Heard et al., 2003), however, in spite of being ‘an integral part of physicians’ medical culture … little is known’ about this widespread and significant mode of clinical communication (Peleg et al., 1999, p. 241), and corridor communications ‘are often discussed as if they were of little formal value’ (Downey et al., 1997, p. 245). Communication modes in hospitals have been extensively studied: medical records, handovers, ward rounds, case management meetings, organizational meetings and doctor–patient communication (Iedema, 2005). Corridors, however, have so far been overlooked as a site of study for health communication. And yet mentions of corridor or hallway consultations or conversations are sprinkled throughout the medical literature, and it is evident from this that corridors act as important conduits of clinical information flow. It appears then that in some respects the interactions that take place in corridors are similar to interactions in other spaces. The focus of this chapter, however, is on how corridor conversations differ from other more frequently studied kinds of clinical information exchange, such as case conferences and ward rounds, and to investigate what is typical of interactions that take place in one specific hospital-based clinic’s corridor space.KeywordsOccupational TherapistHospital CommunicationClinical CommunicationWard RoundInterprofessional CollaborationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.