Browsing by Author "Hernandez, Rachael"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    The Conscientious Use of Images Illustrating Diversity in Medical Education Marketing
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2020) Hernandez, Rachael; Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Patrick, Shawn; Tucker-Edmonds, Brownsyne; Livingston, Nikki; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    An institution's marketing materials are an important part of presenting its culture. In 2018, communication professionals in the Office of Faculty Affairs, Professional Development, and Diversity at the Indiana University School of Medicine recognized after reviewing the literature that using images illustrating diversity in marketing materials may have unintended negative consequences and could potentially reflect poorly on the institution. Representations of diversity that are discordant with the actual demographics of an institution can create distrust among faculty, students, and staff who discover an institution is not as diverse or supportive of diversity as their marketing materials suggest. If institutions adopt an aspirational approach to images and depict more diversity than actual demographics reflect, the authors of this Perspective recommend that they both develop marketing materials that present a widely diverse selection of images and demonstrate transparency in their communication strategies.To improve their promotional materials, the authors conducted an analysis of their institution's strategy for selecting images for these materials, identified institutional goals related to the strategic use of images, created training materials for staff, and drafted a public-facing statement about diversity in images. These measures are a significant step forward in cultivating the ethical use of images illustrating diversity. In the future, institutions should highlight their approaches to using images to portray diversity, as well as photograph and document a wide range of events that represent diverse topics and individuals. When these images are used for marketing purposes, it is also important to ensure that they are used in an appropriate context and not selected with the single goal of presenting diversity. Future research should focus on how underrepresented students and faculty interpret the use of diverse images in marketing, as well as their preferences for the use of their own images in marketing materials portraying diversity.
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    Exploring societal-level privacy rules for talking about miscarriage
    (Sage, 2019) Bute, Jennifer J.; Brann, Maria; Hernandez, Rachael; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    Communication privacy management (CPM) theory posits that culturally specific understandings of privacy guide how people manage private information in everyday conversations. We use the context of miscarriage to demonstrate how societal-level expectations about (in)appropriate topics of talk converge with micro-level decisions about privacy rules and privacy boundary management. More specifically, we explore how people’s perceptions of broad social rules about the topic of miscarriage influence their disclosure decisions. Based on interviews with 20 couples who have experienced pregnancy loss, we examined how couples described miscarriage as a topic that is bound by societal-level expectations about whether and how this subject should be discussed in interpersonal conversations. Participants reflected on their perceptions of societal-level privacy rules for protecting information about their miscarriage experiences and described how these rules affected their own privacy management decisions. We discuss these findings in terms of CPM’s theoretical tools for linking macro-level discourses to everyday talk.
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    If I Quit in the Clinic and Do Nothing but Teach, I'm Going to Be Looking for a New Job: An Exploration of Uncertainty Management in Medical Education
    (Taylor & Francis, 2020) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Hernandez, Rachael; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    Academic medicine in the United States is a complex field, changing regularly in response to new healthcare knowledge, emerging technologies, and evolving funding models. Uncertainty management theory (UMT) provides scholars a lens to make sense of how individuals experience uncertainty. This study employs UMT to explore the experiences of clerkship and course directors (CDs), faculty in U.S. medical schools who serve in education administration roles. Fifteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews with eight CDs over 14 months indicate complicated relationships with uncertainty at work. Interpreted through UMT, these results reveal that some CDs manage uncertainty discursively, and at times, leverage uncertainty to maintain agency within their roles. These findings indicate that it may be important to recruit CDs who feel comfortable with and can manage uncertainty and provide them with appropriate socialization and ongoing support. Broadly, the results suggest that a more nuanced understanding of uncertainty management experiences can benefit both employees and institutions; as employees gain more role clarity, institutions receive information on how to better meet employees’ needs.
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    The Person That Asks the Question Controls the Conversation: College Students' Privacy Management with Physicians about Sexual Behavior
    (2019-09) Hernandez, Rachael; Petronio, Sandra; Bute, Jennifer; Hoffman-Longtin, Krista; Schwartz, Peter
    College students demonstrate a persistent lack of knowledge about safe sexual practices and engage in sexual behavior that puts them at risk for preventable health issues, specifically, sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy. Fortunately, physicians have an opportunity to provide accurate and timely information about safe sexual behavior to individuals in their care. However, many young people, and in particular young women, are reticent to talk to their physicians about sexual behavior because they typically consider the information to be private. They draw thick privacy boundaries around this information, leading to a missed opportunity to communicate about sexual behavior with their healthcare provider. Exacerbating this issue is the fact that many physicians are also uncomfortable discussing sexual topics with their patients. In this dissertation, Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory is used to investigate the criteria that female college students employ to negotiate the disclosure and concealment of information about sexual behavior to physicians. Qualitative analysis of open-ended interviews with female college students were used to describe and explain the way college students perceive issues concerning disclosure of sexual behaviors to their physician. These findings have the potential to improve communication interventions both for female college students and healthcare professionals.