Alison giving a talk

Professor Alison Pilnick BPharm, MA, PhD, FAcSS, FRSA

Professor of Language, Health and Society

My profile

Biography

I joined MMU in October 2023, having previously been Professor of Language, Medicine and Society in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham. My first degree was in pharmacy, and after a spell working as a hospital pharmacist in Nottingham I was lucky enough to get Department of Health funding (from a now sadly defunct scheme) to undertake first a Masters in Social Policy and then a PhD in Sociology.

My research interests lie primarily in the field of the sociology of health and illness, with a particular interest in interactions between health and social care professionals and their patients or clients. Funded by bodies including the British Academy, ESRC and NIHR, I have worked with a wide range of health professionals in a wide range of care settings both in the UK and overseas, using audio and video recordings to examine interactions and to inform and develop communication skills training. This is linked to a broader interest in the use of qualitative methods to inform and improve healthcare policy and practice.

I am a previous editor of the journal Sociology of Health and Illness, and a current advisory editor (Medical Sociology) for the journal Social Science and Medicine,  and an editorial board member for Communication and Medicine. I have served on both the BSA Medical Sociology Group Committee and the American Sociological Association (Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Section) Committee, and in 2021 I was appointed to the ESRC Strategic Advisory Network, the body that advises ESRC on strategies, schemes, investments and interventions. In 2015 I was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in recognition of my research in healthcare. 

From 2020-21 I  took part in the Academy of Medical Science’s FLIER (Future Leaders in Innovation, Enterprise and Research) programme, becoming the first sociologist to participate. The programme enables researchers to create collaborations across academia, industry, the NHS and government to enhance innovation. From  2020-22 I held a British Academy Senior Research Fellowship, working on a project entitled ‘Between autonomy and abandonment: reconsidering patient-centred care’ which is now in its dissemination phase. The monograph produced from this work won the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize in 2023, for the book making the most significant contribution to medical sociology.

I have extensive experience of PhD supervision, having supervised 30 students to date, in a range of healthcare related areas. A number of these students were healthcare professionals. From 2015-19 I was also Director of the Nottingham ESRC Doctoral Training Centre, and Deputy Director of the ESRC Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership, a collaboration between 6 Midlands universities led by the University of Warwick. I am always pleased to hear from potential students who are interested in any aspect of communication in healthcare.

Interests and expertise

My research uses audio, or preferably, video recordings, to examine interaction between health and social care professionals and their clients or patients and to use these findings to inform and develop communication skills training. These recordings come from clinics, hospital wards, GP surgeries, or anywhere that healthcare is delivered. My preferred way of working is a method called conversation analysis which is highly detailed and, despite the name, also allows analysis of non-verbal and paralinguistic features of interactions. Though my work spans a wide range of settings, I’m particularly interested in some core practices which recur across healthcare settings: advice giving; communicating uncertainty; communicating risk; patient choice and decision making; communicating where one party has a condition that can affect talk (e.g. dementia); communicating where parties don’t share a first language. As well as working to improve communication in specific settings, I’m also interested in trying to improve communication skills training more generally. For example, actors playing ‘simulated patients’ are common participants in healthcare training, and conversation analysis can be used to improve the authenticity of their interactions. Over the years, my work in this field has been supported by funders including ESRC, NIHR, General Research Fund of Hong Kong, Swiss National Science Foundation, Big Lottery Fund and the British Academy.

Get in touch

4.03 Brooks Building

Projects

I’m currently working on the NIHR-funded VOICE 2 project (Videoing to Improve dementia Communication Education). This follows on from our successful NIHR-funded VOICE 1 project. Both projects have aimed to improve the care of people living with dementia who are admitted to the acute hospital for reasons other than their dementia (e.g. a fall, or an infection). By filming everyday tasks and activities on the wards we have been able to identify the ways in which healthcare practitioners negotiate interactional troubles or challenges, and unpick the interactional practices associated with these so that effective practices can be trained. In VOICE 1 we developed an award-shortlisted training intervention which used a novel approach to train Simulated Patients: Conversation Analysis-Based Simulation (CABS). In VOICE 2 we are focusing particularly on responding to distress.

I am also continuing to disseminate the findings of my British Academy Senior Research Fellowship. My monograph, ‘Reconsidering patient-centred care: between autonomy and abandonment’, was published by Emerald in 2022 and won the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize in 2023 for the book making the most significant contribution to medical sociology.  You can listen to a podcast about the research here:  https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/reconsidering-patient-centered-c…

Teaching

I have considerable experience of PhD supervision, having successfully supervised 30 PhD students to date. A number of these projects were interdisciplinary, working with colleagues from Medicine, Health Science, Veterinary Science, Law and Business and Management amongst others. Student topics have included goal setting in physiotherapist/patient interaction, the nature of collaborative work in operating theatres, decision-making by women at risk of hereditary breast cancer, risk communication in genetic counselling, advice giving in obesity clinics; and the development and examination of interventions to improve healthcare communication in settings including acute dementia care and learning disability. I particularly welcome applications from PhD students interested in interaction in healthcare related fields.

Current Students:

Rachel Pemberton (ESRC 1+3 award): Too much touch? Enabling a better understanding of the use of touch in dementia care (Collaborative studentship with Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust)

Olivia Stephens (Wellcome Trust) Non invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in fetal anomaly screening: issues of informed choice and reproductive autonomy

Lauren Bridgstock (ESRC 3.5 award): Is ‘elderspeak’ always inappropriate? An empirical investigation of the use of elderspeak in dementia care (based at Nottingham)

Gilian Noord (ESRC 1+3 award): Improving the digital delivery of primary health care post Covid-19 (based at Nottingham)

Felicity Slocombe (ESRC +3 award) : Managing selfhood in dementia (based at Loughborough)

Research outputs

Pilnick, A., O’Brien, R., Beeke, S., Goldberg, S., Murray, M., & Harwood, R. H. (2023). Conversation Analysis Based Simulation (CABS): A method for improving communication skills training for healthcare practitioners. Health Expectations, https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13834

Atkins, S., Pilnick, A., Maben, J., & Thompson, L. (2023). Storytelling and affiliation between healthcare staff in Schwartz Round interactions: A conversation analytic study. Social Science and Medicine, 333, Article 116111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116111

Pilnick, A. (2023). Reconsidering patient‐centred care: Authority, expertise and abandonment. Health Expectations, https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13815

Slocombe, F., Peel, E., Pilnick, A., & Albert, S. (2022). Keeping the conversation going: How progressivity is prioritised in co-remembering talk between couples impacted by dementia. Health, https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593221127822

Zottola, A., Jones, L., Mullany, L., & Pilnick, A. (in press). “I got confused when they said ‘you’re a girl’”: Trans men’s life histories and the regulation of gender. In G. Brookes, & M. Chałupnik (Eds.), Masculinities and Discourses of Men’s Health. Palgrave Macmillan

ALISON PILNICK, 2022. Practitioner-Client Relationships. In: LEE MONAGHAN and JONATHAN GABE, eds., Key Concepts in Medical Sociology 3rd edition.

ALISON PILNICK, 2022. Reconsidering patient-centred care: between autonomy and abandonment. Bingley: Emerald Publishing. (Awarded the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize 2023, for the book making the most significant contribution to medical sociology).

POKU BRENDA AGYEIWAA, PILNICK ALISON and KIRK SUSAN, 2022. How a child’s gender mediates maternal care and expectations in the fatigue experiences of adolescents with sickle cell disease. Journal of Family Studies.

BRENDA POKU and ALISON PILNICK, 2022. Biographical accounts of the impact of fatigue in young people with sickle cell disease Sociology of Health and Illness. 44(6), 1027-1046

CLULEY, V, PILNICK, A and FYSON, R, 2022. Talking about learning disability: discursive acts in managing an ideological dilemma SSM- Qualitative Research in Health. 2,

POKU BRENDA AGYEIWAA and PILNICK ALISON, 2022. Research knowledge transfer to improve the care and support of adolescents with sickle cell disease in Ghana Health Expectations. 25(5), 2515-2524

ZOTTOLA, A., JONES, L., PILNICK, A., MULLANY, L., BOUMAN, W. and ARCELUS, J., 2021. Identifying coping strategies used by patients at a transgender health clinic through analysis of free‐text autobiographical narratives Health Expectations.

PILNICK, A., O’BRIEN, R., BEEKE, S., HARWOOD, R. and GOLDBERG, S., 2021. Avoiding repair, maintaining face: Responding to hard-to-interpret talk from people living with dementia in the acute hospital Social Science and Medicine. 282, 114156

PILNICK, A., 2021. Reconceptualising research, reconceptualising responsibility: A rejoinder to ‘Collecting qualitative data during a pandemic’ by David Silverman Communication and Medicine. 17(1), 92-95

O’BRIEN, REBECCA, BEEKE, SUZANNE, PILNICK, ALISON, GOLDBERG, SARAH E and HARWOOD, ROWAN H, 2020. When people living with dementia say ‘no’: Negotiating refusal in the acute hospital setting. Social science & medicine (1982). 263, 113188

CLULEY, V., PILNICK, A. and FYSON, R., 2020. Improving the inclusivity and credibility of visual research: interpretive engagement as a route to including the voices of people with learning disabilities in analysis VISUAL STUDIES. 36(4-5), 524-536

PILNICK, A. and ZAYTS, O., 2019. The power of suggestion: examining the impact of presence or absence of shared first language in the antenatal clinic Sociology of Health and Illness. 41(6), 1120-1137 (In Press.)

CLUELY, V., FYSON, R. and PILNICK, A., 2019. Theorising disability: a practical and representative ontology of learning disability Disability and Society. (In Press.)

HOLLIN, G., PILNICK, A.(Joint first authorship) 2018. The categorisation of resistance: Interpreting failure to follow a proposed line of action in the diagnosis of autism amongst young adults. Sociology of Health and Illness. 40(7), 1215-1232

WEBB, J., PILNICK, A. and CLEGG, J., 2018. ‘Imagined Constructed Thought: how staff interpret the behaviour of patients with intellectual disabilities Research on Language and Social Interaction. 

DE KOK, B., WIDDICOMBE, S., PILNICK, A. and LAURIER, E., 2018. Doing patient-centredness versus achieving public health targets: A critical review of interactional dilemmas in ART adherence support. Social Science and Medicine. 205, 17-25

O’BRIEN, R, GOLDBERG, SE, PILNICK, A., BEEKE, S., SCHNEIDER, J., SARTAIN, K., THOMSON, L., MURRAY, M., BAXENDALE, B. and HARWOOD, RH., 2018. The VOICE study – A before and after study of a dementia communication skills training course PLOS ONE.

PILNICK, ALISON, TRUSSON, DIANE, BEEKE, SUZANNE, O’BRIEN, REBECCA, GOLDBERG, SARAH and HARWOOD, ROWAN H., 2018. Using conversation analysis to inform role play and simulated interaction in communications skills training for healthcare professionals: identifying avenues for further development through a scoping review BMC MEDICAL EDUCATION. 18,

HARWOOD. R.H., O’BRIEN, R., GOLDBERG, S., ALLWOOD, R., PILNICK, A., BEEKE, S., THOMSON, L., MURRAY, M., PARRY, R., KEARNEY, F., BAXENDALE, B. and SARTAIN, K., 2018. A staff training intervention to improve communication between people living with dementia and health-care professionals in hospital: the VOICE mixed-methods development and evaluation study Health Services and Delivery Research. 6(41), 1-166

TRUSSON, D. and PILNICK, A., 2017. Between stigma and pink positivity: Women’s perceptions of social interactions during and after breast cancer treatment. Sociology of Health and Illness. 39(3), 458-473

ALLWOOD, R., PILNICK, A., O’BRIEN, R., GOLDBERG, S., HARWOOD, R. and BEEKE, S., 2017. Should I stay or should I go? How healthcare professionals close encounters with people with dementia in the acute hospital setting. Social Science and Medicine. 191, 212-225

TRUSSON, D. and PILNICK, A., 2016. The role of hair loss in cancer identity: Perceptions of chemotherapy-induced alopecia amongst women treated for early stage breast cancer or DCIS Cancer Nursing. (In Press.)

PILNICK, A. and ZAYTS, O., 2016. Advice, authority and autonomy in Shared Decision Making in antenatal screening: the importance of context Sociology of Health and Illness. 38(3), 343-59

JAMES, DEBORAH MICHELLE, PILNICK, ALISON, HALL, ALEX and COLLINS, LUKE, 2016. Participants’ use of enacted scenes in research interviews: A method for reflexive analysis in health and social care SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE. 151, 38-45

TRUSSON, DIANE, PILNICK, ALISON and ROY, SRILA, 2016. A new normal?: Women’s experiences of biographical disruption and liminality following treatment for early stage breast cancer SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE. 151, 121-129

HOLLIN, GJS and PILNICK, A., 2015. Infancy, autism and the emergence of a socially disordered body Social Science and Medicine. 143, 297-286

ZAYTS. O. and PILNICK, A., 2014. Genetic counselling in multicultural and multilingual contexts.. In: HAMILTON, H. and CHOU, S., eds., Routledge Handbook of Language and Health Communication. Routledge.

PILNICK, A and ZAYTS. O., 2014. ““It’s just a likelihood”: uncertainty as topic and resource in conveying ‘positive’ results in an antenatal screening clinic”. Symbolic Interaction. 37(2), 187-208

SCHOEB, V., STAFFONI, L., PARRY, R. and PILNICK, A., 2014. “What do you expect from physiotherapy?”: A detailed analysis of goal setting in physiotherapy. Disability and Rehabilitation. 36(20), 1679-86

WEBB, J., CLEGG, J. and PILNICK, A., 2014. Changing the way that staff interact with people who have challenging behaviour Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disability. 27(4),

PILNICK, A., 2013. The practitioner-client relationship. In: GABE, J. and MONAGHAN, L., eds., Key Concepts in Medical Sociology Wiley-Blackwell.

PILNICK, A., 2013. Conversation Analysis. In: COCKERHAM, W., DINGWALL, R. and QUAH, S., eds., The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society. Wiley-Blackwell..

S. EVERITT, A. PILNICK, J. WARING and M. COBB, 2013. The structure of the small animal consultation Journal of Small Animal Practice. 54(9), 453-458

PILNICK, A., 2013. Sociology Without Frontiers?: On the Pleasures and Perils of Interdisciplinary Research Sociological Research Online. 18(3),

PILNICK, A and JAMES, D., 2013. “I’m thrilled that you see that”: Seeing success in interactions with children with deafness and autistic spectrum disorder Social Science and Medicine. 99 (December), 89-101

PILNICK, A. and ZAYTS, O., 2012. ‘Let’s have it tested first’: choice and circumstances in decision-making following positive antenatal screening in Hong Kong Sociology of Health and Illness. 34(2), 266-282

PILNICK, A., CLEGG, J., MURPHY, E and ALMACK, K., 2011. ‘Just being selfish for my own sake …’: balancing the views of young adults with intellectual disabilities and their carers in transition planning The Sociological Review. 59(2), 303-323

GREENHILL, N., ANDERSON, C., AVERY, A. and PILNICK, A., 2011. Analysis of pharmacist-patient communication using the Calgary-Cambridge guide Patient Education and Counseling. 83(3), 423-431

PILNICK, A. and SWIFT, J.A., 2011. Qualitative research in nutrition and dietetics: assessing quality Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. 24(3), 209-214

EDGLEY, A and PILNICK, A. & CLARK, M., 2011. ’The air still wasn’t good … everywhere I went I was surrounded’: Lay perceptions of air quality and health Health Sociology Review. (In Press.)

PILNICK, ALISON and DINGWALL, ROBERT, 2011. On the remarkable persistence of asymmetry in doctor/patient interaction: a critical review. Social science & medicine (1982). 72(8), 1374-82

PILNICK, A., CLEGG, J., MURPHY, E. and ALMACK, K., 2010. Questioning the answer: questioning style, choice and self-determination in interactions with young people with intellectual disabilities Sociology of Health & Illness. 32(3), 415-436

PILNICK, A. AND COLEMAN, T., 2010. ”Do your best for me”:-the difficulties of finding a clinically effective endpoint in smoking cessation consultations in primary care. Health. 14(1), 57-74

PILNICK, A. and HINDMARSH, J. AND GILL, V.T., eds., 2009. Communication in Healthcare Settings: Policy, Participation and New Technologies. Blackwell. (In Press.)

PILNICK, A, HINDMARSH, J and GILL, V.T., 2009. Beyond doctor and patient: developments in the study of healthcare interactions Sociology of Health and Illness. 31(6), 787-802 (In Press.)

PILNICK, A., 2008. “It’s something for you both to think about”: choice and decision making in nuchal translucency screening for Downs Syndrome Sociology of Health and Illness. 30(4), 511-530

HINDMARSH, J. AND PILNICK, A., 2008. The tacit order of teamwork: collaboration and embodied conduct in anaesthesia. In: R. DINGWALL, ed., Qualitative Health Research (Fundamentals of Applied Research Series) 2: Health Professions and their work. Sage. 268-94 (In Press.)

HINDMARSH, J. and PILNICK, A., 2007. Knowing Bodies at Work: Embodiment and Ephemeral Teamwork in Anaesthesia ORGANIZATION STUDIES. VOL 28(ISSU 9), 1395-1416

PILNICK, A. and COLEMAN, T., 2006. Death, depression and `defensive expansion’: Closing down smoking as an issue for discussion in GP consultations Social Science & Medicine. VOL 62(NUMBER 10), 2500-2512

ALLEN D AND PILNICK A, 2005. Making connections: A case study in the social organisation of healthcare work Sociology of Health and Illness. 27(6), 683-700

ALLEN, D. and PILNICK, A., eds., 2005. The Social Organisation of Healthcare Work Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, New York.

PILNICK, A., 2005. ”Why didn’t you just say that?” Dealing with issues of knowledge, competence and asymmetry in the pharmacist/client interaction. In: Medical Care, Medical Work and Medical Knowledge: A reader in the sociology of health and illness Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, New York.

PILNICK, A., 2004. ‘It’s just one of the best tests that we’ve got at the moment’: the presentation of nuchal translucency screening for fetal abnormality in pregnancy Discourse and Society. 15(4), 451-465

PILNICK, A.M, FRASER, D.M and JAMES, D.K, 2004. Presenting and discussing nuchal translucency screening for fetal abnormality in the UK. Midwifery. 20(1), 82-93

PILNICK, ALISON and COLEMAN, TIM, 2003. “I’ll give up smoking when you get me better”: patients’ resistance to attempts to problematise smoking in general practice (GP) consultations. Social Science & Medicine. 57(1), 135-45

PILNICK, A., 2003. “Patient counselling” by pharmacists: four approaches to the delivery of counselling sequences and their interactional reception Social Science & Medicine. VOL 56(NUMBER 4), 835-849

PILNICK, A., 2002. `There are no rights and wrongs in these situations’: identifying interactional difficulties in genetic counselling Sociology of Health & Illness. 24(1), 66-88

HINDMARSH, J. and PILNICK, A., 2002. The tacit order of teamwork: collaboration and embodied conduct in anesthesia Sociological Quarterly. 43(2), 139-164

PILNICK, A., 2002. Genetics and society : an introduction / Alison Pilnick Buckingham ; Philadelphia : Open University Press, 2002.

PILNICK, A., 2002. What `most people’ do: exploring the ethical implications of genetic counselling New Genetics and Society. VOL 21(NUMB 3), 339-350

PILNICK, A., DINGWALL, R. and STARKEY, K., 2001. Disease management: definitions, difficulties and future directions Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 79(8), 755-763

PILNICK, A., 2001. The interactional organization of pharmacist consultations in a hospital setting: a putative structure Journal of Pragmatics. 33(12), 1927-1945

PILNICK, A. and DINGWALL, R., 2001. Research directions in genetic counselling: a review of the literature Patient Education and Counseling. 44(2), 95-105

PILNICK, A., 1999. “Patient Counseling” by Pharmacists: Advice, Information, or Instruction? Sociological Quarterly. VOL 40(NUMBER 4), 613-622

PILNICK, A., 1999. “When You Wake Up it’ll All be Over”: Communication in the Anaesthetic Room Symbolic Interaction. VOL 22(NUMBER 4), 345-360

PILNICK, A., 1998. ‘Why didn’t you say just that?’ Dealing with issues of asymmetry, knowledge and competence in the pharmacist/client encounter Sociology of Health and Illness. VOL 20(NUMBER 1), 29-51

PILNICK, A., 1998. Advice giving in community pharmacies: a response concerning methods for future research Journal of Health Services Research and Policy. VOL 3(NUMBER 2), 97-99

Career history

2023

Winner of the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize for the book making the most significant contribution to medical sociology.

2020-21

Academy of Medical Sciences FLIER (Future Leader in Innovation, Enterprise and Research)

2023

Professor of Language, Health and Society, Manchester Metropolitan University

2015

Elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

2010

Professor of Language, Medicine and Society, University of Nottingham

1998-2009

Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader, University of Nottingham

1997-98

British Council/CIMO Fellowship, University of Helsinki

1997

PhD (Sociology)