Jane Ege Møller , Bente Vigh Malling , Flemming Randsbæk , Matilde Nisbeth Brøgger
{"title":"Doctors’ stories and their functions for collaboration: A narrative study","authors":"Jane Ege Møller , Bente Vigh Malling , Flemming Randsbæk , Matilde Nisbeth Brøgger","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100587","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100587","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we explore the role of doctors' stories about one another in fostering or hindering collaboration. Using a qualitative and narrative approach, we investigate the types and functions of stories that doctors share, focusing on narratives within emergency departments. Methodologically, we combine observations in the emergency departments of three hospitals, 5 focus groups with 15 trainee doctors, and one focus group and three individual interviews with a total of 8 specialist doctors. The concept of ‘antenarrative’ is used to understand these fragmented, co-constructed stories. We developed two main types of narrative: historical, stereotype-driven narratives about medical specialties, and local, experience-based narratives. These stories serve multiple functions, including icebreaking and entertaining, warning, venting, bantering, reinforcing in-group cohesion and attacking. We find that while some stories negatively impact collaboration by perpetuating stereotypes, others positively facilitate teamwork. The findings suggest that storytelling plays a critical role in the ongoing workplace dynamics, emphasizing the need to recognize the nuanced role of storytelling in collaboration. Increasing awareness of the various functions of collegial stories, their role as ‘bets’ for future narratives, and their importance for collaboration in both pre-graduate and post-graduate medical training is important for medical education as well as workplace culture. While we argue that avoiding such stories is undesirable and impossible, raising awareness about the powerful impact of the stories, for example in relation to negative stories about other medical specialties, is critical.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100587"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144270156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lene Munch , Michael van Manen , Malene Missel , Malene Boas , Annette Korsholm Mouritsen , Malene Beck
{"title":"‘Walking in their shoes’: How does externally worn diabetes technology mediate with the lifeworld of adolescents with type 1 diabetes","authors":"Lene Munch , Michael van Manen , Malene Missel , Malene Boas , Annette Korsholm Mouritsen , Malene Beck","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100583","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100583","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the high prevalence of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) among young people, there is limited understanding of how diabetes technologies affect their lives. What is it like to be a young person grappling with the challenges of T1D? How do therapeutic approaches sculpt their experiences? In what ways are medical devices constitutive of their embodiment? Through interviews with adolescents, this phenomenological study explores how insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors, and other paraphernalia affect adolescents' lived experiences. Key existential themes are articulated as an experience of: living interrupted, being made visible, living monitored, and the ambiguity of technological dependency. We show the potential complexity of adolescents' experiences with T1D technologies. While the technologies function as helpful tools, they may also be experienced as burdensome and intrusive on adolescents living of their lives. By being attentive to adolescents experiences, this study contributes to the development of patient-centered approaches to T1D care and offers critical reflections on the role of wearable technologies in chronic disease management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100583"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144263619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Isabella M. Radhuber , Amelia Fiske , Barbara Prainsack
{"title":"Health in a changing climate: Perceptions of “broken relationships” during COVID-19 in Austria","authors":"Isabella M. Radhuber , Amelia Fiske , Barbara Prainsack","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100582","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100582","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article contributes to understanding health in a changing climate by analysing public perceptions of the root causes of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria. Drawing on 209 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted between April 2020 and October 2021 in a country that was facing significant challenges regarding national climate targets at that time, the study explores how people linked health, nature, and politics during the pandemic. While many initially expressed hope that the COVID-19 Anthropause would catalyse sustainable change, this optimism soon faded. Over the following year and a half, participants increasingly identified the broken relationships between humans, nature, and things as the root cause of overlapping health, environmental, and climate crises. This culminated in a widespread awareness that personal health is inextricably connected to the wellbeing of the natural environment—and that systemic change, though considered unlikely at the time, is necessary to address these intersecting crises. Our findings show strong resonances between Austrian residents’ multidimensional understanding of health in times of climate change and insights from decolonial scholarship, Indigenous people’s knowledges, as well as global majority perspectives. In dialogue with environmental health, Planetary Health, and Indigenous scholarship, we draw out how participants conceived health as a condition shaped by various ‘natural’, biological, ecological, social, political, economic and other dimensions that interact over time and space. Highlighting this perspective from a global minority context raises more far-reaching questions about the need for decolonial repair to address climate-related health impacts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100582"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144570769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robert Prettner , Hedwig te Molder , Jeffrey D. Robinson
{"title":"Addressing concerns of vaccine-hesitant parents: Prefacing medical advice with a refutational two-sided message","authors":"Robert Prettner , Hedwig te Molder , Jeffrey D. Robinson","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100576","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100576","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soliciting and addressing parents' concerns about childhood vaccination is a fundamental task of healthcare professionals (HCPs) talking to vaccine-hesitant parents. Prior research showed that parents' vaccination intent is a recurring topic at Dutch Well-Baby Clinics (WBCs), but vaccination questions or concerns are rarely discussed. To study how parental concerns are presented and addressed in naturally occurring conversation, we collected 11 vaccination consultations at an anthroposophical WBC. This clinic attracts vaccine-hesitant parents with various concerns about vaccination, despite the physician having an essentially pro-vaccination attitude. We begin our analysis by briefly outlining the nature of parents' concerns and find that those concerns are rarely addressed directly. Instead, the physician uses an advice-prefacing practice that can be likened to a refutational two-sided message, typically consisting of four components: (1) projection; (2) presentation of the vaccination proponent's position; (3) presentation of the vaccination opponent's position; and (4) refutation of the opponent's position. We discuss the important role of projection and show how parents may orient to a stand-alone refutation as doing persuasion. We conclude by arguing that the two-sided preface appears to be designed to present medical advice as being impartial and trustworthy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100576"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144890912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Immuno-biographies of people living with blood-borne viruses: a timeline interview and narrative case study approach","authors":"Kerryn Drysdale , Deborah Lupton","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100575","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100575","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the question of what human ‘immunity’ means and how it is related to broader social and biological systems has recently come to the fore. In this article, we engage with the concept of ‘immuno-biographies’, presenting four narrative case studies generated from a project that examines the intersections between individuals' experiences across their life course of exposure to infectious diseases, the other significant health events they have experienced, their use of vaccines, antivirals and other medications and other healthcare, and their general health and wellbeing practices. A co-constructed timeline interview approach was used to configure narrative case studies and immuno-timelines. The immuno-biographies presented in this article were selected from a cohort of participants in the study living with blood-borne viral infections (HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C, including co-infections). These case studies show how individual biographical experiences of health and illness combine with social structures, cultural meanings, and other life events in people's rationales and practices related to COVID and other health risks. The findings demonstrate the ways that people think about their immunity and immune responses biologically, biographically and socially, offering insights into the complexities, fluxes and liquidities of immuno-biographies. Our findings build on and extend previous research on immunity-related practices and understandings in the COVID era that have demonstrated how factors such as health status, social interactions, aspects of place and space, and previous experiences of illness, social stigma and social discrimination shape COVID-related prevention practices and healthcare.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100575"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144242983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rhys Mantell , Adrienne Withall , Amanuel Kidane Hagos , Kylie Radford , Natasha Ginnivan , Phillip Snoyman , Peter W Schofield , Tony Butler , Ye In Jane Hwang
{"title":"A critical realist analysis of digital health screening for older people in prison","authors":"Rhys Mantell , Adrienne Withall , Amanuel Kidane Hagos , Kylie Radford , Natasha Ginnivan , Phillip Snoyman , Peter W Schofield , Tony Butler , Ye In Jane Hwang","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100581","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100581","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The growing cohort of older people (50+) in Australian prisons have high rates of physical, psychosocial and cognitive conditions, with evidence that many of these remain underdiagnosed or undetected. It is necessary to better identify the priority health and social needs of older people in prison to ensure a safe, equitable and cost-effective prison health system. Increased digital health screening in prison is seen as one promising approach to achieve this end. This study aims to explore the factors that are likely to impact future adoption of digital health screening tools for older people in prison. This is a qualitative analysis underpinned by a critical realist philosophy and explanatory model of science. Primary data were collected through seven focus groups in prisons across New South Wales, Australia. Participants included a diverse sample of older people in prison (n = 20), as well as nurses and psychologists working in justice healthcare and the correctional system (n = 13). Two global themes were generated from our analysis - constraint and conflict. Constraint, focusing on structural factors, reveals that limited system capacity and competing service priorities create organisational barriers towards the implementation of additional digital health screening. The second theme, conflict, examines individual barriers to help-seeking for older people in prison. These are caused, in part, by past traumatic life experiences as well as current pressures to conform to prevailing social norms within the prison environment. These structural and individual factors, and their interplay, require further attention before widespread digital health screening can be successfully implemented in Australian prisons.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100581"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144270157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marian Peacock , Paul Bissell , Markus Reuber , Cordelia Gray , Richard Grünewald , Jon M. Dickson
{"title":"Non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD): trauma and life events, context and meaning","authors":"Marian Peacock , Paul Bissell , Markus Reuber , Cordelia Gray , Richard Grünewald , Jon M. Dickson","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100578","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100578","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper makes the case for a re-consideration of the role of trauma and life events – and crucially, their social and political context – in relation to non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD). Trauma and adverse life events have well established links with many health conditions and whilst they are acknowledged to play a part in NEAD, more recent research suggests that such events are not ubiquitous. Currently, when events are seen as salient this is most commonly interpreted in relation to properties of the individual and their agency. Context – social and political factors - are seldom integrated or considered.</div><div>This paper presents findings from a study which examined how trauma and life events were understood by participants, how frequently trauma and life events were present in participants’ accounts and in what ways they may be salient as predisposing, precipitating or perpetuating factors in NEAD. Employing a validated a life history questionnaire to purposively sample participants with high and low levels of self-reported trauma, we deployed a narrative interview approach which elicited rich descriptions of life experiences.</div><div>We found that descriptions of trauma or adverse life events were present in all our participants and that these events were shaped by social contexts of their lives. We propose that the method used to collect trauma data is central to what is found and that a recognition of the social and political context, and their meanings, results in a more nuanced understanding of the place of trauma and life events.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100578"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144230594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gillian Kolla , Jeanette M. Bowles , Katie Upham , Hannah Ali , Seff Pinch , Hafza Majid , Laila Bellony , Dan Werb , Sanjana Mitra
{"title":"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to harm reduction and treatment services among people who inject drugs in Toronto, Canada: A qualitative investigation","authors":"Gillian Kolla , Jeanette M. Bowles , Katie Upham , Hannah Ali , Seff Pinch , Hafza Majid , Laila Bellony , Dan Werb , Sanjana Mitra","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100569","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100569","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions exacerbated Canada's ongoing drug toxicity overdose crisis. Opioid agonist therapy (OAT), safer opioid supply (SOS), and supervised consumption sites (SCS) are interventions that aim to reduce risk of morbidity and mortality from drug toxicity and were affected by COVID-19. Between September and October 2020, we conducted qualitative interviews with 24 people who inject drugs receiving services at community harm reduction programs in Toronto, Canada to examine the health and socioeconomic impacts of COVID-related service disruptions. Participants who were already receiving OAT and SOS prior to the start of pandemic reported high levels of continuity of care when pandemic measures were implemented, with medical appointments switching to telemedicine. Participants reported easy access to harm reduction supplies, but those accessing SCS reported increased wait times due to COVID-related capacity restrictions that reduced the number of injection spaces available due to physical distancing requirements. Participants reported extreme difficulty accessing shelter beds and food insecurity due to the closure of drop-in programs, food banks, and food distribution programs and noted the deep impacts these changes had on their health and socioeconomic well-being. Disruption in service delivery of shelters and food programs reveal the need for adaptation of strategies to ensure service continuity. Preparedness planning for future public health emergencies can benefit from analysis of lessons learned, as continuity of care was successfully ensured in OAT, SOS and harm reduction service delivery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100569"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144242981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dane Emmerling , Deena Hayes-Greene , Bay Love , Alexandra F. Lightfoot , Shelley Golden , Derek M. Griffith , Geni Eng
{"title":"“You’ve got the door cracked enough that maybe they can’t quite get it closed again”: A qualitative study of trainers’ perceptions of the impacts of a two-day antiracism training","authors":"Dane Emmerling , Deena Hayes-Greene , Bay Love , Alexandra F. Lightfoot , Shelley Golden , Derek M. Griffith , Geni Eng","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100571","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100571","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objective</h3><div>Diversity training is commonly used by organizations, but evidence of positive impacts is mixed. Antiracism training, which focuses on structural racism, is largely unexamined in the diversity training literature. The Racial Equity Institute (REI) offers a widely implemented antiracism training called Phase 1 which has never been formally evaluated. As a part of larger community-based participatory research partnership, the research team interviewed REI trainers to understand their perceptions of the impacts of the REI training.</div></div><div><h3>Design</h3><div>We conducted qualitative in-depth interviews (n = 15) with 58 % of REI trainers who lead Phase 1 to understand their views on what participants gain from the workshop. We used thematic qualitative analysis to understand the changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors at the individual and organizational level that trainers hope to achieve, including the factors that influence the impact.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The interviews revealed that REI trainers expected the training to change participants’ knowledge of and attitudes toward structural racism. Trainers anticipated specific but limited individual and collective behaviors to result from the training. The most important anticipated outcome was that participants learn to connect racial disparities to structural root causes.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>While the literature on diversity training suggests many possible individual, organization, and outcome-level impacts, REI trainers shared a more limited and consistent set of benefits for how individuals and organizations conceptualize and approach racial inequities. Investigating the perceptions of antiracism trainers is the first step in creating appropriate criteria for evaluating REI Phase 1 and building an evidence-base for antiracism training impacts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100571"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144364547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Linnea Evans , Sienna Ruiz , Akilah Collins-Anderson , Darrell Hudson , Odis Johnson Jr. , Erin Linnenbringer
{"title":"Shouldering the labor of school desegregation: Stress and health implications for Black families","authors":"Linnea Evans , Sienna Ruiz , Akilah Collins-Anderson , Darrell Hudson , Odis Johnson Jr. , Erin Linnenbringer","doi":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100573","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100573","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many U.S. Black students and their families seek quality educational opportunities by enrolling in schools far from their residence via school choice or school desegregation initiatives, a primary impetus to school choice programs. Using data drawn from in-depth interviews and surveys with caregivers of Black student participants (n = 22) who attended one of the few remaining U.S. school desegregation programs, we characterize families' day-to-day experiences with desegregation, including perceived benefits and costs, particularly to health. Study findings highlight added sacrifice and labor relevant to the erosion of health in Black families who seek social mobility through education. Additionally, over half of caregivers participated as children themselves in the St. Louis desegregation program, prompting reflections on their own experiences in relation to their children's experience. From this comparison, we find repetition in the surplus labor exerted by Black families to participate in school desegregation across a generation – evidence we are referring to as the ‘institutionalization of racialized equity labor and intergenerational stress.’ However, the potential health toll was often minimized in participant narratives. In discussing these findings, we consider how minimization is deployed to carry-on through adversity and the implications for education-health research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":74862,"journal":{"name":"SSM. Qualitative research in health","volume":"8 ","pages":"Article 100573"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}