Nurses talking to patients: exploring conversation analysis as a means of researching nurse–patient communication

As governmental priorities worldwide continue to emphasise the inclusion of patients in healthcare consultations, there is a pressing need for a research approach that accurately captures the contribution of both participants within nurse–patient interaction. With this in mind, this paper examines, via selective data extracts, the contribution that conversation analysis (CA) could make to this area of nursing research. In the United Kingdom (UK) over the last two decades, CA has been neglected as a method for exploring nurse–patient communication, and a case is made here for its entry into the mainstream of nursing research. The case is made particularly persuasive in the light of conversation analysts’ use of naturally occurring research data, a form of data that is regrettably lacking in much of the published research on nurse–patient interaction.