Coding Interviews with Dental Professionals about their Gum Disease Explanations

As part of my PhD: Difficult conversations: Discussing gum (periodontal) disease, I am looking for 2 students to assist with coding:
1. interviews with dental professionals, and
2. conversations between dental professionals and simulated patients about what gum (periodontal) disease is.

Periodontal disease is the world’s most common long-term inflammatory disease. It is irreversible and has a significant impact on the sufferer’s quality of life. Unfortunately there is a general lack of awareness of, and understanding about this disease amongst the general public. Understanding the condition is crucial, though, as the patient has a key role to play in stabilising the disease.

Task 1: To assist in coding interviews with dental professionals
Start date: As soon as possible (Dec 2018 / Jan 2019)
End date: March 2019
Hours: between 3 and 12 per week
Number of possible students: 2
Your main task will be to apply a qualitative thematic coding scheme to anonymised transcripts of interviews with dental professionals, and to compare your analysis to that of the main researcher, with agreement being reached through informal discussion. Using WordSmith software to isolate key linguistic features may also be involved. Training will be given.

Task 2: To assist in analysing conversations between dental professionals and simulated patients
Start date: June / July 2019
End date: September 2019
Hours: between 3 and 12 per week
Number of possible students: 2
Your task will be to analyse video recorded conversations between dental professionals /dental students and simulated patients (patient actors) in order to determine the main functional stages of the conversations and to identify common emergent linguistic features. Training will be given.

Likely outcomes:
• Experience with thematic coding of qualitative interview data
• Experience of working in a health-related inter-disciplinary project (Dentistry and Linguistics) with real-world application / impact
• Practical experience of using a functional approach to analysing health-related conversations
• Potentially experience with using WordSmith software for linguistic analysis

Students who have questions about this project should contact Marion Bowman (School of Dentistry) on m.c.bowman@leeds.ac.uk

If you would like to work on this project, please send me an RES application form by 07/12/2018. For further details, see the How to Apply tab above.