Congratulations to Wendy English for successful PhD defense

Wendy English

Wendy English passed her PhD oral exam earlier this month with only minor revisions. In her thesis she explored the experiences of rapport between patients, families, and health professionals during telehealth encounters. Her topic arose out of concerns expressed by health professionals’ about disruptions to developing rapport when using telehealth with patients and families at home. This is particularly so in palliative care, where rapport is considered essential to patient and family care.

She used an Interpretive Description approach for her methodology and undertook her research in 3 phases: 1) patient and family interviews, 2) health professional focus groups and interviews, and 3) applying findings to the Theory of Human Relatedness. In her results section she reported several original findings. For example, she developed a new conceptual definition of rapport that was grounded in the rapport experiences of patients and families during telehealth calls. She noted that patients and families identified the “vibe” of the health professional as vital to the development of rapport during telehealth calls. The “vibe” was related to the presence and skill of the health professionals, not the technology used to communicate. Palliative health professionals identified the complexities of telehealth calls and the soft skills required to develop rapport. Importantly, the adapted Rapport and Relatedness model identified interactions with a lack of rapport or pseudo-rapport which were unsatisfactory, and potentially harmful for patients and families, as well as health professionals.

Wendy’s thesis adds important new knowledge about what constitutes rapport and how it is experienced during telehealth calls. Rapport is a vital soft skill that requires health professionals to be present and reflexive, with an associated need for training in rapport and telehealth. Interactions with rapport were the preferred state of relatedness during telehealth calls, and further research is recommended into interactions with pseudo-rapport or no rapport. Taken together, the findings of this thesis provide evidence that rapport, as defined in this study, can not only be achieved using telehealth, but rapport is fundamental to safe person-centred telehealth encounters.

Wendy is a specialist palliative care nurse and research advisor at Nurse Maude in Otautahi, Christchurch. Her primary research interests lie in rapport and health care communication to improve patient and family experiences and outcomes in palliative care. She was also the 2023 recipient of the Communio Research Fellow Scholarship.

During the course of her PhD Wendy published several articles related to her research:

English, W., Gott, M., & Robinson, J. (2022a). The meaning of rapport for patients, families, and healthcare professionals: A scoping review. Patient Education and Counseling. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34154861/

English, W., Gott, M., & Robinson, J. (2022b). Being reflexive in research and clinical practice: A practical example. Nurse Researcher, 30(2). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35642591/

English, W., Robinson, J., & Gott, M. (2023a). Rapport: A conceptual definition from the perspective of patients and families receiving palliative care. Patient Education and Counseling. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36328826/

English, W., Robinson, J., & Gott, M. (2023b). Health professionals’ experiences of rapport during telehealth encounters in community palliative care: An interpretive description study. Palliative Medicine, 026921632311722. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37129344/

English, W., Robinson., & Gott, M. (2023c). How are the vibes? Patient and family experiences of rapport during telehealth encounters in community palliative care. Patient Experience; 10(2):75-85. https://doi.org/10.35680/2372-0247.1786

English, W., Robinson., & Gott, M. (Under review). Applying experiences of rapport during telehealth calls to the Theory of Human Relatedness. Communication in Healthcare Strategies, Media, and Engagement in Global Health