“It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic
The recognition of uncertainty as a pivotal issue for the sociology of medicine is longstanding. More recently, the widespread integration of new medical technologies into healthcare has led to a renewed analytic focus on uncertainty. However, there remains little work on the interactional manifesta...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33208/ |
| _version_ | 1848794583667834880 |
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| author | Pilnick, Alison Zayts, Olga |
| author_facet | Pilnick, Alison Zayts, Olga |
| author_sort | Pilnick, Alison |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The recognition of uncertainty as a pivotal issue for the sociology of medicine is longstanding. More recently, the widespread integration of new medical technologies into healthcare has led to a renewed analytic focus on uncertainty. However, there remains little work on the interactional manifestations of uncertainty. This article uses conversation analysis to examine how uncertainty is introduced and used in one specific setting: an antenatal screening clinic in Hong Kong. We focus on women who have received “screen positive” or higher risk results, and reflect on the ways in which uncertainty is an “essential tension” (Mazeland and ten Have 1996) in the activity of conveying these results to them. We conclude that as well as posing potential difficulties for interaction, the uncertainty of test results is also used here as an interactional resource in managing the institutionally defined category of “high risk.” |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:18:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-33208 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:18:30Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-332082020-05-04T20:14:42Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33208/ “It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic Pilnick, Alison Zayts, Olga The recognition of uncertainty as a pivotal issue for the sociology of medicine is longstanding. More recently, the widespread integration of new medical technologies into healthcare has led to a renewed analytic focus on uncertainty. However, there remains little work on the interactional manifestations of uncertainty. This article uses conversation analysis to examine how uncertainty is introduced and used in one specific setting: an antenatal screening clinic in Hong Kong. We focus on women who have received “screen positive” or higher risk results, and reflect on the ways in which uncertainty is an “essential tension” (Mazeland and ten Have 1996) in the activity of conveying these results to them. We conclude that as well as posing potential difficulties for interaction, the uncertainty of test results is also used here as an interactional resource in managing the institutionally defined category of “high risk.” Wiley 2014-05 Article PeerReviewed Pilnick, Alison and Zayts, Olga (2014) “It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic. Symbolic Interaction, 37 (2). pp. 187-208. ISSN 0195-6086 uncertainty; risk communication; conversation analysis; antenatal screening; “screen positive” (high risk) patients; diagnosis delivery http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/symb.99 doi:10.1002/symb.99 doi:10.1002/symb.99 |
| spellingShingle | uncertainty; risk communication; conversation analysis; antenatal screening; “screen positive” (high risk) patients; diagnosis delivery Pilnick, Alison Zayts, Olga “It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic |
| title | “It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic |
| title_full | “It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic |
| title_fullStr | “It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic |
| title_full_unstemmed | “It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic |
| title_short | “It's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic |
| title_sort | “it's just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying “positive” results in an antenatal screening clinic |
| topic | uncertainty; risk communication; conversation analysis; antenatal screening; “screen positive” (high risk) patients; diagnosis delivery |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33208/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33208/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33208/ |