Poetics in Practice: Narratives of primary care consultations
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Poetics in Practice: Narratives of primary care consultations
IRAS ID
260696
Contact name
Genevieve Liveley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Primary Care consultations account for a large proportion of all NHS doctor-patient health encounters; in England 1 million patients on average consult with a GP every day. In 2017-8 the largest proportion of written NHS complaints in primary care were about contacts with GPs (NHS Digital, 2018). Adequate opportunities for patients, and/or their companions, to share information about their needs or concerns and the wider context for these, are foundational for accurate and timely diagnosis, and for optimised treatment planning. Facilitating better consultations would therefore have a positive impact for patients and GPs alike. The importance of storytelling (narrative) skills in giving and taking/ making effective medical case histories, and in communicating diagnoses and treatment plans is well established. Using anonymized data already collected in the One in a Million Archive to study the storytelling interactions between patients/companions and their GPs during consultations, this project aims to use the tools of narratology (the literary theory of story and storytelling) to interrogate the importance of storytelling in primary care consultations.
The proposed study will analyse the content of a sample of consultations with adults in routine primary care using data already collected during the ‘Bristol Archive Project’ (REC 14/SW/0112) - an archive of video-recorded and transcribed consultations plus linked data. Data linked to these consultations include: patient and GP questionnaires and related primary care medical records. 327 GP consultations, with 23 GPs, from 12 practices in the South-West were recorded between July 2014 to April 2015. 327 patients gave "Consent to current research team for research purposes beyond this project” subject to further ethical approval. RB (project advisor), was a member of the original research team. This database is securely archived in the Bristol University Research Data Repository.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0909
Date of REC Opinion
30 May 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion