Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
profession, educational levels, and leadership position titles and or
the management structure. In addition, a hierarchy exists within the
staff’s culture as related to length of time that one has worked in a
specific acute care unit and acceptance as an individual and
professional.
The Serpentine
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Figure 8. The Serpentine
Serpentine. The serpentine heuristic describes the back and
forth motion between participants or ideas within a conversation. In
this context the view of the serpentine heuristic reflects layers of
hierarchal contexts that flow into the turns, which are taken within a
dialogue. The layers of hierarchy then function as contexts that hold
the meanings and then contribute to the many contextual turns in
the dialogue. This social construction is complex and convoluted and
as one thinks about this concept one can see how easily meaning
might become lost within the dynamic communication environment
of healthcare. Thus, healthcare communication is a function of the
language and rules of engagement within the context of the layers
and multiple dimensions in the healthcare hierarchy.
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