5. Introduction to conversation analysis and health care encounters

This two day course is a contemporary working introduction to applying conversation analytic methods to the study of communication in health care. It includes formal lectures, practical exercises, demonstrations, and an extended supervised small group practicum.

Registration Fee £750

CONTACT: oxfordqualitativecourses@phc.ox.ac.uk if you have any problems logging in and paying. You have NOT reserved a place until you have paid.

Cancellation policy:  Registration can be cancelled within 14 days of purchase and a full refund will be given.   If you have to cancel your place on the course after this time up until 30 days prior to the course date, there will be a cancellation fee of £75.  30 days or less prior to the course date, there will be no refund

To receive a bulletin of upcoming course dates, please register here. Our friendly team are on-hand to answer your questions and queries oxfordqualitativecourses@phc.ox.ac.uk   

Course Description

Participants will learn about conversation analysis as a qualitative method for studying communication in health care, how to go about making video or audio recordings of naturally-occurring encounters between patients, caregivers and health care providers in different settings and gain practical skills in transcribing and analysing them. By the end of the course participants will understand how to apply conversation analytic methods either within standalone projects or alongside other methods in health services research towards the improvement of patient care.

This course is led by Dr Rebecca Barnes, an expert in applying conversation analytic methods. It is open to anyone who would like to understand the basic principles behind conversation analytic methods and to develop practical skills how to apply them to health care encounter data. Participants do not need to have any previous experience or knowledge of conversation analytic methods, although involvement in, or future ambitions towards planning a research project applying these methods would make the course more relevant.

Teaching Team:

This course is delivered by a highly experienced and research-active teaching team. The team have a range of specialities and skills enabling them to give a comprehensive overview of conversation-analytic methods, and ensuring that each session is led by a knowledgeable expert in the field. As well as being accomplished researchers, our team are skilled at communicating key conversation-analytic concepts and methods in an accessible and clear way. Our tutors are friendly and approachable and our participants regularly emphasise our teaching team as a highlight of this course.

Content:

1. What is conversation analysis (CA)?
2. What kinds of questions can CA methods address in health research?
3. Collecting naturalistic data: Ethical issues, recording and transcribing.
4. Analysing naturalistic data: Making and working with collections.
5. Extended small group practicum with expert supervision.
6. Understanding pathways to impact and how to disseminate CA findings.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the basic principles behind using CA to study health care encounters
2. Recognise the sorts of research questions for which CA methods may be appropriate
3. Determine how to collect high quality recordings of health care encounters in different settings, and identify the key conventions used in the CA approach to transcription
4. Apply practical skills in working with recordings and transcripts of health care encounters to build collections of interaction practices for CA analysis
5. Give examples of the kinds of impact CA studies can have in health research and the range of strategies for disseminating CA findings 

Course delivery:

Please note that  the teaching sessions for the June 2025 course will be held in person in Oxford, UK. We are very happy to welcome bookings from wherever you are, but please make sure that you are able to attend the course in person. 

Tutors

Dr Rebecca Barnes and a team of applied CA researchers