MetaTOC stay on top of your field, easily

Interpretation of Care Guidelines for Obese Women in Labor: Intergroup Language and Social Identity

, , , ,

Journal of Language and Social Psychology

Published online on

Abstract

The hospital-based care of pregnant women who are obese is complex. Current guidelines recommend early epidural analgesia, but there is disagreement about the guidelines and their implementation by anesthesiologists. In this study, we conducted semistructured interviews with 42 specialist anesthesiologists about their experiences implementing the "early epidural" recommendation. We examined the impact of intergroup identity and system factors on the language used by anesthesiologists to express their experiences, framing the work by social identity and communication accommodation theory. Leximancer text mining was used to elicit the dominant theme "epidural" in the interviews, and discourse analysis aided in exploring selected extracts. Findings indicated that anesthesiologists expressed their role primarily as technical experts, along with the core value of accommodating patients’ wishes. Furthermore, the extent to which they were prepared to accommodate the perspective of other health professionals was a key indicator of the intergroup climate.