Reported Speech in Conversational Storytelling During Nursing Shift Handover Meetings

Shift handovers in nursing units involve formal transmission of information and informal conversation about non-routine events. Informal conversation often involves telling stories. Direct reported speech (DRS) was studied in handover storytelling in two nursing care units. The study goal is to contribute to a better understanding of conversation in handover and use of DRS in storytelling in institutional contexts. Content analysis revealed that the most frequent sources quoted were oneself and patients, followed by physicians and colleagues. Further, DRS utterances are preceded by reports of situations, actions, and other reported speech, often constituting the climax of a story. Conversation analysis revealed how DRS participates in multimodal reenactments, complaints about patients, and justifying deviations from medical protocols. Results inform understanding of the uses of DRS in institutional storytelling, show how they index relevant membership categories and related knowledge and expectations, and serve as resources for making sense of non-routine events.