Newsletter - August 2025

It's halfway through August, so let's dive right in! Communication in healthcare has made it in the media again in the form of how respect and compassion are managed through how colleagues talk to each other and how clinicians talk to patients. I wrote a short post about it here, referring to frameworks that centre respect and argue for more investment in communication. 

Recommendation of the month

Since I've been working on research projects relating to conversational technologies, I've had the opportunity to explore some of the literature in the space, such as "When ChatGPT can't Chat: The Quest for Naturalness" and "Conversation analysis and conversational technologies: Finding the common ground between academia and industry". It's definitely a developing field, so keen to see what else comes out in coming months.

Events

We're looking forward to some events next month, including a workshop at the South Western Sydney Local Health District Corporate Services Conference and a booth at the International Medical Graduate Conference. We're sponsoring a prize at the latter, offering the best presentation/poster on communication, teamwork, or supervision, an individualised 1-to-1 coaching session. You can find out more about our coaching here.

A little conversation analysis

I had a little break in July, so got back into doing conversation analysis by analysing a small excerpt from the opening of Australian parliament. I love how conversation analysis can provide such insights into how we get things done and make mutual understanding possible through conversation.

Survey

We'd like to hear from you - what are you interested in when it comes to communication and how can we improve what we offer at Bedside Manners Pty Ltd. Please complete the survey here.