Invoking Uncertainty: Parents' Accounts for Intrusions on Medical Authority in Pediatric Neurology

In pediatric medical visits, parents may assume the role of co-caregiver with clinicians. At times, parents challenge physicians' authority to determine diagnoses and treatments for their children. The present study uses conversation analysis to examine parents' accounts for their intrusions on medical authority in a corpus of 35 video-recorded pediatric neurology visits for overnight video-electroencephalogram monitoring. I show how parents can exploit their legitimate role as carers to challenge medical authority. Through invoking uncertainty in contexts where they have somehow challenged medical authority, parents can account for their conduct in ways that elide direct conflict with physicians and thereby minimize damage to the physician-family partnership.

Automated summary

This study examines parents' intrusions on medical authority in pediatric neurology visits through conversation analysis. The findings suggest that parents can challenge medical authority by exploiting their legitimate role as caregivers and using uncertainty to explain their behavior in order to minimize conflict with physicians.