Communication between families of critically ill patients and staff in the Intensive Care Unit

This is a unique opportunity to pursue a doctoral study on the communication between families of critically ill patients and staff in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). You will be studying under the supervision of Jeff Bezemer (professor of communication), Jonathan Smith (professor of psychology) and Tim Bonnici (consultant intensive care physician). Adopting a longitudinal ethnographic and experiential approach, you will (1) observe family-staff encounters on the ICU throughout the course of a patient’s ICU admission, exploring the nature of the communication which affect the outcome, e.g., how conversations are handled, how identities are constructed, how decisions are made; and (2) interview families and staff to examine how they experience their evolving relationship, exploring how particular individuals are making sense of the communications and relationships they are having. The output of the research will be rich, thick descriptions of telling cases that render visible the complexities of communication and developing a language of description around recurring themes in the conversations and accounts of family and staff, facilitating metacommunication (e.g. factors that are perceived to inhibit or promote effective communication). This will support ICU clinicians to understand and improve communication with families