TY  - JOUR
T1  - Linguistic Strategies in Simulated Pharmacy Education: The Role of Hedges and Intensifiers in Shared Decision-Making
A1  - Khaled S. Ahmed
A1  - Noor H. Saeed
A1  - Aisha M. Rahman
JF  - Annals of Pharmacy Education, Safety, and Public Health Advocacy
JO  - Ann Pharm Educ Saf Public Health Advocacy
SN  - 3108-4850
Y1  - 2021
VL  - 1
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.51847/eoirMy5sYm
SP  - 155
EP  - 162
N2  - Hedges and intensifiers are linguistic devices employed to address individuals' face needs, specifically their desires for autonomy or social belonging. This research sought to examine the application of these strategies by pharmacy students and their influence on communication scores in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), with emphasis on shared decision-making and the acceptance of pharmacists’ recommendations by patients and prescribers. A retrospective cohort analysis was performed on OSCE videos representing poor, average, and good communication grades. Grounded in politeness theory, summative content analysis and statistical methods were used to identify, categorize, and compare the employment of hedges and intensifiers across different grade levels.

Students generally employed more hedges than intensifiers in interactions with physicians (1253 vs 565) and patients’ carers (2026 vs 369). Modal auxiliary verbs were the most frequent hedges (27.5%), while high-strength adverbs were the predominant intensifiers (47%). Students rated as strong communicators used fewer hedges when addressing carers compared to physicians (median 42 vs 29), in contrast to those with poor ratings (median 42 vs 38). Pharmacy students predominantly used hedging when offering recommendations. High-performing students, as graded by examiners, demonstrated variation in hedge usage depending on the interlocutor, whereas lower-performing students applied similar linguistic patterns regardless of whether speaking to patients or physicians. These findings offer valuable insights into the relationship between grading and linguistic choices, potentially guiding the development of innovative communication training programs rooted in applied linguistics for both students and examiners. Such programs could better equip graduates to employ linguistic strategies effectively when conveying pharmacist-led recommendations in professional settings.
UR  - https://smerpub.com/article/linguistic-strategies-in-simulated-pharmacy-education-the-role-of-hedges-and-intensifiers-in-shared-qufv3x5ptlz222a
ER  -