Face and politeness in pharmacist-physician interaction

Area of Science:

• Communication Studies
• Health Services Research
• Linguistics

Background:

• Understanding communication dynamics between healthcare professionals is crucial for patient safety and effective care.
• Politeness theory provides a framework for analyzing social interactions and linguistic strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate factors influencing politeness in pharmacists' messages to physicians.
• To examine the role of perceived power, social distance, age, sex, and practice context in shaping these communications.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of written messages from 210 community and 112 hospital pharmacists responding to a drug allergy scenario.
• Content analysis of messages, classifying clauses by politeness strategies for allergy reports and drug recommendations.
• Statistical examination of demographic variables and their association with politeness levels.

Main Results:

• Age and practice context significantly correlated with politeness in drug recommendations, but not allergy reports.
• Perceived power and social distance were related to demographic factors but did not predict politeness levels as hypothesized.
• Drug recommendations were consistently delivered with a higher degree of politeness than allergy reports.

Conclusions:

• Pharmacist-physician communication politeness is influenced by specific demographic and contextual factors.
• The findings suggest nuanced communication strategies employed by pharmacists in different professional contexts.
• Further research can explore implications for professional roles and interprofessional collaboration.