Towards Better Healthcare

Intergroup communication and safety and quality of patient care

Groups related to this event

Centre for Health Informatics
Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research
Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science

Event date

Thursday, 25 June 2015

We discuss research projects being undertaken by a team of scholars at UQ (Psychology and School of Medicine) and UNSW (Business). Our research investigates how the hospital culture and associated interprofessional identity and communication practices impact on the quality of patient care. We unpack the complexities around communication by discussing some past, current and planned research. Preliminary findings from our Australian and US project are discussed.

Speaker profile

Bernadette Watson is the Director of the Applied Psychology program in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland. She is the immediate past president of the International Association of Language and Social Psychology and has been chair of the Intergroup Communication interest group in the International Communication Association (ICA). Her research interests centre on intergroup communication and communication accommodation between health professionals and patients, and among health professionals, including visualisation of communication engagement and accommodation.

Gavin Schwarz is an Associate Professor in the School of Management at the UNSW Business School. His current research interests include organizational failure to change, the logic of structural inertia, and knowledge development in organization theory. His research has been published in various journals such as Journal of Management, British Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Journal of Management Inquiry, Group and Organization Management. He serves as the associate editor of Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and Journal of Change Management, is on the editorial board of Journal of Management and Journal of Organizational Behavior, and is an executive board member of the Organization Development and Change division of the US Academy of Management.

Date: Thursday 25th June 2015

Time: 12 noon – 1pm

Venue: Seminar Room Level 1, 75 Talavera Road, Macquarie University