Dr Sarah Collins
Contact details
Department of Health Sciences
University of York
Heslington
York
YO10 5DD
Tel: 01904 321330
Email: sfc1@york.ac.uk
Biography
Dr Sarah Collins is a linguist and sociologist whose specialist interest is the study of interactions in health care settings. Her research in this field includes patient participation in decision-making, comparative analyses of doctors’ and nurses’ communication in multidisciplinary care, and the interplay between patients’ perspectives and biomedical agendas in the consultation. Other research includes cross-cultural comparisons of language use, and the interactions of people with cerebral palsy. In the Hull-York Medical School and Health Sciences, she plays a lead role in the design and delivery of curriculum material and courses in health care communication and research methods for health care professionals, front-line staff and health sciences students at all levels, within which she has developed applications of conversation analysis techniques.
Selected recent publications
Collins S, Britten N, Ruusuvuori J and Thompson AGH (eds.) (2007) Patient Participation in Health Care Consultations. Open University Press. [http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335219640.html]
Collins S and Britten N (2006) Conversation Analysis. In C. Pope and N. Mays (eds.) Qualitative Research in Health Care 3 rd Edition. BMJ Books, London.
Collins S. (2005) Communicating for a clinical purpose: strategy in interaction in health care consultations. Communication & Medicine 2/2:111-122.
Collins S. (2005) Explanations in consultations: the combined effectiveness of doctors’ and nurses’ communication with patients. Medical Education 39: 785-796.
Collins S, Drew P., Watt I. and Entwistle V. (2005) “‘Unilateral’ and ‘bilateral’ practitioner approaches in decision-making about treatment”, Social Science and Medicine, 61, 2005: 2611-27
Recent and Current Research Projects
2001 –2002 £4k Diabetes UK Nurse Consultations with Patients with Diabetes.
2002 –2003 £41k ESRC Effective consultations with patients: a comparative multidisciplinary study
2002- 2003 £4k University of York Developing a synthesis of different strands of interdisciplinary research in the field of communication
2005 £3.7k Teaching Fellowship, University of York . Developing a flexible multimedia learning resource in communication, with interdisciplinary
applications
2006- Involving young people with cystic fibrosis in clinic consultations In collaboration with Department of Practice and Policy, School of Pharmacy, University of London