Self-Repeats-as-Unit-Ends: A Practice for Promoting Interactivity During Surgeons’ Decision-Related Informings

Abstract

Although information provision is a prerequisite of informed decision making in surgical consultations, research has shown that patients’ understanding of such information is often limited. We use conversation analysis to illustrate patients’ and surgeons’ management of interactivity, intersubjectivity, and progressivity during information provision, which frequently takes the form of extended tellings. In the midtelling phase of extended tellings, the surgeon is the primary speaker and patients orient to the temporary suspension of the usual turn-taking system. On the rare occasions that patients do take the floor midtelling, it is overwhelmingly following surgeons’ self-repeats-as-unit-ends, which include gist formulations. We argue that surgeons’ self-repeats-as-unit-ends are a practice for encouraging interactivity during extended tellings and as a consequence for facilitating shared understanding of decision-relevant information. Data are in English.