Dr Sarah White
Adjunct Senior Lecturer
Doctor of Philosophy, 2011, University of Otago
Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Linguistics and Spanish and Latin American Studies, 2006, University of New South Wales
Medicine & Health
Discipline of General Practice
I am a conversation analyst and I help people to improve how they work together through communication. I achieve this through researching conversation as it happens in the wild, developing data-driven training and using up-to-date teaching methods, and communicating more broadly about the science of conversation.
As an educator, I have experience in teaching across the breadth of higher and continuing education, particularly with healthcare students and providers. I create authentic learning experiences to support students to become critical thinkers and resilient professionals. This approach is designed to assist in developing learner capacity to analyse the quality of information, communicate and work in teams, and critically consider ethical, social, and professional challenges.
As an educational leader, I aim to instil that same intense focus and commitment to evidence-informed student learning in those that I mentor and within the teams I lead. My accomplishments and reflective approach to learning and teaching were recognised through being awarded Senior Fellow of Advance HE (SFHEA) in 2019 and a 2021 Australian Award for University Teaching Citation.
As a researcher, I lead an innovative program of research with an aim to improve communication between clinicians and patients. This includes research on surgeon-patient consultations, telehealth, and pain talk. Findings from this and other research, as well as methods, editorial and opinion articles, have been published and presented to a range of communication, clinical, and policy audiences. I am on the editorial board for BJGP Open, Qualitative Health Communication, and Health Literacy and Communication Open.
At a national and international level, I contribute to the fields of conversation analysis and healthcare communication. I have written articles sharing the science of conversation for MJA Insight+ and I am the founder and director of Bedside Manners Pty Ltd, a company offering bespoke healthcare communication training and consultancy services. I am an active member of the International Society for Conversation Analysis (ISCA) and the International Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH).
E-mail
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
|
Funder: |
Project Title: |
$ Awarded |
Years Funded |
|
UNSW Health@Business Network |
Embedding health literacy in clinical practice |
22,000 |
2022 |
|
Avant Foundation |
Telehealth in General Practice |
95,000 |
2021-2023 |
|
Macquarie University |
The effect of pain on interaction in consultation settings |
17,580 |
2018-2019 |
|
Macquarie University |
Simulation versus practice |
29,520 |
2013-2015 |
|
Macquarie University |
Teaching skilled clinical communication |
9895 |
2012 |
Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, 2021 Australian Awards for University Teaching
Teaching Quality Improvement Award, Highly Commended, 2021, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University
Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, Highly Commended, 2018, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University
My sustainable approach to research has involved developing a database of recorded consultations. Through this, I have led and collaborated on numerous analyses of naturally occurring clinical consultations, with collaborative projects and publications in healthcare. This includes co-supervising MD students at several different medical schools. By supervising their research, I have contributed to their in-depth understanding of how conversation works, facilitating their development as reflective practitioners as they move into medical careers.
I am one of a few highly trained conversation analysts in Australia who specialises in how the methodology applies to healthcare. I have contributed to conversation analysis for over a decade through data sessions, supervision, mentoring, and social media engagement. I frequently collaborate to integrate multiple methods to create a more robust picture of clinical communication in practice. Through this, I have developed expertise in working in mixed and multi-methods, including those relevant to linguistic ethnography such as thematic analysis, content analysis, action research, and the application of coding schemes.
My Research Supervision
- Avisak Bhattacharjee, University of Adelaide (external supervisor)
- Kanesha Ward, Macquarie University (external supervisor)
My Teaching
I am an academic mentor at UNSW.
I teach into the Integrated First Year program for the UNSW Business School. This includes convening COMM1120 Collaboration and Innovation and lecturing on sustainability, systems thinking, and ethics. I have previously contributed to teaching in other undergraduate and postgraduate courses for the Centre for Social Impact.
I have been awarded Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), AAUT Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, and Faculty-internal commendations for leadership of multidisciplinary teams in curriculum development and renewal and teaching professional development. I have contributed to pedagogical research on clinical communication education through funded research on approaches to training to improve authentic and actionable education.