Negotiating Interpersonal and Medical Talk: Frame Shifts in the Gynaecologic Exam

Abstract

Extending from previous research on code switching and conversational framing, the present study focuses on the interaction between a nurse practitioner and her patients during gynaecologic exams. Specifically, this research found that the nurse practitioner and her patients initiated and responded to cues that shifted the medical encounter from medical to personoriented and then back to medical frames. Further, this research indicates that such frame shifts serve a rhetorical function in the encounter which facilitates the actual medical examination. Finally, these interactions exemplify the efficient and empathic integration of both interpersonal and medical dimensions of the medical examination.