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This paper analyzes the impact of adults' interactive moves and strategies on children's participation and agency at dinnertime in two Italian residential care facilities, one of the most widely used alternative care life-context for children and youth coming from vulnerable families. Participants are 14 children and 11 educators living in two residential care facilities in Rome (Italy). Adopting an interactional and multimodal analytic approach, this paper focuses on two dinnertime activities: the routine activity of praying before eating and the very frequent one of talking about rules and transgressions. The comparative analysis of the two facilities shows how, in stable patterns of adult-child interactions recurring across different activities in the same facility, adults' strategies and interactive maneuvers differently impact on children's participation and agency and consequent socialization practices. In the conclusion, we emphasize the relevance and implications of this study for either research in educational sciences and for professionals operating in alternative care and related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnomethodology research has systematically investigated discursive practices of categorisation, looking at the various ways by which social actors ascribe both themselves and others to identity categories to accomplish various kinds of social actions. Drawing on a data corpus of oncological visits collected in an Italian hospital, involving both native and non-native patients, the present work analyses how participants in these intercultural medical encounters invoke and make relevant social identity categories by the marking of collective pronouns in their talk. Our results showed that whilst institutional identities (e.g. those of the doctors, the local hospital or the Tumour Board) prevailed, categorial formulations related to cultural or linguistic identities were rarely displayed in interactions with non-native patients. Conversational participants made very little of their linguistical or cultural background and when they did so, their cultural and linguistic identities were deployed for rhetorical and pragmatical aims, such as testing and negotiating common knowledge and epistemic authority. This study shows how even speakers' minimal lexical choices, such as marked pronouns, impact the negotiation of meanings and activities in life-saving sites such as oncological visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper examines a previously neglected phenomenon in doctor-patient interaction studies, i.e. the achievement of mutual disengagement-a specific state of coordination, in which participants suspend reciprocal gaze and turn into separate axes of involvement. In the specialized setting of the oncology visit, which we consider in this study, mutual disengagement is linked to important tasks that the oncologist has to carry out, notably the scrutiny of the histological exam during the diagnostic assessment phase.Methods: Our data corpus includes 56 video-recorded oncology visits. We employ conversation analysis to discern how mutual disengagement is achieved, sustained and ended.Results: Our analysis shows that suspension of mutual engagement is a joint accomplishment that requires intersubjective cooperation. It also reveals that when talk and reciprocal engagement are suspended, intersubjective alignment is more vulnerable to breakdown.Conclusion: Our findings eschew a characterization of the oncologist as solo arbiter of the interactional exchange. An alignment with the patient is key to the felicitous accomplishment of the visit. We also suggest that a successful medical encounter is not only characterized by harmonious verbal communication, between doctor and patient, but also by felicitous pauses in their joint engagement.Practice Implications: In building a room of one's own, the oncologist has the responsibility to co-construct with the patient an experience of interactional attunement and mutual understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper we examine how doctor and patient coordinate actions in interaction towards the smooth accomplishment of the medical visit. Such coordination entails primarily the management of time and praxis, i.e. the apportionment of time to the tasks to be completed during the visit; and it is not an easy enterprise, for a number of reasons: 1) the tasks to be carried out during the visit are not familiar in equal measure to doctor and patient; 2) the extent of attention to be devoted to each task cannot be fully determined in advance but requires ongoing judgment and calibration; 3) generally, the timeframe of the visit is relatively limited. Our ethnographic and conversation analytic study of oncological visits shows that doctor and patient rely on a range of semiotic resources to achieve mutual understanding and coordinated actions. In particular, our analysis has identified textual artifacts and metapragmatic utterances as key semiotic components in the coordination and negotiation of the temporal trajectories and courses of actions that constitute and traverse the oncology visit. Highlights • The structuring of time and activity in oncology visits was studied. • Ethnographic observation and conversation analysis of videorecordings were carried out. • The structuring of time and activity is a joint accomplishment by doctor and patient. • Textual artifacts and metapragmatic utterances are the key semiotic resources used. • Effective management of visits' timing may be more beneficial than having more time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the rapid advances of digital technology, traditional paper-based forms of reading and writing are steadily giving way to digital-based literacies, in theory as well as in application. Drawing on a study of literacy in a medical workplace context, this article examines critically the shift toward computer-mediated textual practices. While a considerable body of research has investigated benefits and issues associated with digital literacy tools in medicine, we consider the affordances of paper-based practices. Our analysis of verbal interaction and textual artifacts drawn from a qualitative study of oncology visits indicates that the uses of pen and paper are advantageous for both doctor and patient. Specifically, they allow doctors to process and package information in ways that are favorable to their personal modus operandi, and they enable patients to participate in the medical visit and take an active role in managing their medical treatment. Understanding the affordances of paper-based literacy provides insights for refining digital tools as well as for motivating the design of possible hybrid forms and digital-analog intersections that can best support medical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a corpus of 35 videorecordings of cancer consultations collected in a medium-size public hospital in Italy, our analyses show how anamnesis, rather than being an automatic sequence of brief and polar (yes/no) questions addressed by the doctor to the patient, results as a challenging interpretative joint activity; in this activity, the doctor and the patient need to collaborate in order to build a shared sense of salience of what compels attention in the actual clinical situation. Results show the interplay of doctor's and patient's different knowledge systems and classification practices, involved in defining what an illness is. Anamnesis proves to be a suitable site for patient's socialization in medical encounters, and a highly collaborative activity due to the amount of interaction and negotiation between the doctor and the patient (higher than those in other stages of the visit). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Good communication is key in cancer care, especially when doctors and patients come from different cultures or speak different languages. We studied 42 videos of doctors talking to Italian and foreign cancer patients during their visits. We looked at how they talked to each other, whether they misunderstood anything, whether there were interruptions, and how much trust and emotion were shown. The type of appointment and the doctor's personal style mattered more than whether the patient was Italian or foreign. This tells us that even when foreign patients can speak the language well, doctors cannot only rely on this to communicate effectively. Doctors should pay attention to interruptions and focus on taking care of the patient as a whole person. The methods we used in this study could help doctors improve their communication skills, which will lead to better care for all patients. Effective communication is crucial in cancer care due to the sensitive nature of the information and the psychosocial impact on patients and their families. Patient-centered communication (PCC) is the gold standard for providing quality cancer care, as it improves patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, clinical outcomes, and overall quality of life. However, doctor–patient communication can be complicated by ethnic, linguistic, and cultural differences. This study employed the ONCode coding system to investigate PCC practices in oncological visits (doctor's communicative behavior, patient's initiatives, misalignments, interruptions, accountability, and expressions of trust in participants' talk, Markers of uncertainty in doctor's talk, markers of emotions in doctor's talk). Forty-two video-recorded patient–oncologist encounters (with 22 Italian and 20 foreign patients), including both first and follow-up visits, were analyzed. Three discriminant analyses were conducted to assess differences in PCC between patient groups (Italian or foreign patients) according to the type of encounter (first visit or follow-up) and the presence or absence of companions during the encounters. Multiple regression analyses were performed to evaluate the PCC differences by oncologist age, patient age, and patient sex, controlling for the type of encounter, the presence of a companion during the visit, and patient group on ONCode dimensions. No differences were found in PCC by patient group in discriminant analyses and regressions. Doctor communication behavior, interruptions, accountability, and expressions of trust were higher in first visits than in follow-ups. The disparities in PCC were primarily linked to the type of visit and the age of the oncologist. However, a qualitative analysis showed notable differences in the types of interruptions during visits with foreign patients compared to Italian patients. It is essential to minimize interruptions during intercultural encounters to foster a more respectful and conducive environment for patients. Furthermore, even when foreign patients demonstrate sufficient linguistic competence, healthcare providers should not solely rely on this factor to ensure effective communication and quality care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the concept of practice, the article explores diagnostic decision making in oncology through the analysis of informal conversations between doctors in an Italian hospital. The analysis shows that doctors rely on three collaborative practices: (a) joint interpretation, (b) intersubjective generation and validation of hypotheses, and (c) postponing the diagnostic decision. Through such practices, doctors jointly handle tough issues such as managing complexity, dealing with cognitive difficulties and limits of knowledge, and avoiding diagnostic errors. The article addresses some lacunae in the literature by providing empirical access to how decision making is done in an understudied and specialized branch of medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study we analyze how 15 working mothers talk about the ways in which routines contribute to sustaining the accomplishment of their domestic work. In particular, we analyze the routines’ function of coordinating multiple lines of activity, their property of anticipating the unexpected and incorporating alternative responses, and their character of being a local resource for practical thinking and action. We then discuss the role that moral personal positioning and ideologies of parenthood, time management, and efficiency might have in accounting for the variety and diversification of routines among families. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper problematizes diagnostic work as a solely technical and rational activity by presenting an analysis focused on the social and organizational practices in which diagnosis is embedded. The analysis of a troubleshooting episode in an Italian internet company shows how diagnostic work is realized: 1) through collaboration sustained by specific knowledge distribution among designers (different but overlapping competences); 2) intersubjectively and discursively as an activity characterized by specific and diverse forms of participation and interwined with material intervention in the system; 3) following a situated rationality which proceeds by gradual approximations to achieve partial or provisional solutions while also taking account of organizational goals and needs. In particular the paper discusses how diagnosis is shaped by time pressure, flexible roles and distributed responsibilities, absent participants, narratives as specialized discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a set of workplace interaction corpora, both dyadic and multiparty, we present three narrative forms departing from the established notion of storytelling. These have been called Rewindings, collaborative reconstructions of yet-unknown past events; Fictions, the creation of imaginary scenes; and Templates, condensed versions of experience providing information on unexpected outcomes or controversial occurrences. Without denying specificity to narrative discourse, we extend its definition here to the displacement of the described actions. We propose that, similarly to what is done in other social and human sciences, conversational studies ought to take into consideration the description of events that are not fully known at the onset of narration and that are partially or entirely suggested by the narrators. The study also contributes to the field of workplace studies, providing an illustration of the functioning of distributed cognition and situated knowledge by showing how narrative is a collaborative enterprise facilitating problem solving and the dissemination of competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article analyzes how and why collaboration is useful in web design. Through an analysis of interactions in an Italian Internet company, the article shows that collaboration is the system used by designers to improve organizational functioning and the quality of products. In particular, it shows that collaboration supports certain crucial work activities, such as the planning of new products and the pursuit of interface usability. To perform these activities, designers draw on specific interactive resources, such as a repertoire of skills shared by groups of different professionals and their overlapping identities as designers and users. These resources are made visible by the article''s epistemological and methodological approach to the study of web design as a collaborative activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article, we describe some of the results of a research project that studied Web design practices in an Internet company. In this work setting, technology acts as both the instrument of mediation, which supports the shared realization of work practices, and as the product of that work activity. For this reason, of particular importance are the social practices by which the designers (a) incrementally and jointly imagine the portal that they have to develop and (b) make visible hidden parts of technologically mediated activities supporting processes of interpretation of user-interface interactions. The results show that these design practices are essentially realized through sociomaterial arrangements of designers and technologies (talk, body, computer, whiteboard, space, etc.). Designers use these arrangements to make phenomena collectively visible and tangible in relation to the aims of the design activity. These results show that design is a complex, situated, and distributed phenomenon to be studied as a rational and individual task whose features emerge only through detailed analysis of the group's work practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the rhetorical manipulation of social identities arising in the discourses of a professional soccer team. The author audio recorded and completely transcribed according to G. Jefferson's (1989) method 3 discursive interactions between team members (after a victory, after a defeat, and in a pregame situation). Methodology comprises both a conversational analysis and a quantitative one. Results show that (a) team members use rhetorically a complex repertoire of their own and others' social identities; (b) intragroup differentiation is more marked than intergroup differentiation; and (c) two main variables influence the use of markings of social identities: the role of the speakers (in particular the power role of the coach) and the result of the match around which the interactive discourse revolves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the indexical meaning of the pronoun ‘I’, in its marked use, in Italian work-meeting conversation. The hypothesis driving the study is that, in a context in which situated identities are manifold, marking the pronoun is a device to highlight the most official of one''s selves, thus changing the status of the utterance containing the marker. A typology of I-marked utterances is presented and the relative frequency of use is shown to vary with the organizational role of the participants. Detailed analysis of epistemic and performative I-marked utterances shows how role-identities are variously manipulated and mitigated through conversational devices such as self-repair, word delay, and metaphorical work. The discussion highlights how indexical meaning is a property of situated conversational practices and how marked pronouns can foreground selected identities in the cluster of selves that members of a work group can present to each other. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article deals with the negotiation of time boundaries in a project group. The study grew up from a theoretical approach grounded in cultural psychology, where time is considered as a cultural artifact and as a dimension of the interactive environment that could be co-constructed by all participants through discourse. The relevance of the negotiation of the temporal dimension in work settings is still unexplored. Both qualitative and quantitative data of the first meeting of a project group of an Italian national bank working on the reorganization of front-office services show how the negotiation of temporal aspects is a core topic from the very beginning of the work. This study shows that when a project starts, all participants spend a lot of effort in defining different kinds of temporal boundaries as these represent very important dimensions of work planning; time is not treated as a single topic but participants differentiate organizational time, project time, meetings time and actual meeting time. Results strengthen the hypothesis of the interactional nature of time in work settings and show specific relationships with the contents of participants' discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood educational centers (ECEC) are contexts where young children make their first contact with specific, culturally determined rules, practices, and values. Only a few studies have analyzed in-depth the practices through which the educators direct the children's action and attention while they are performing routine educational activities. By means of detailed transcription of educators-children conversations and Conversation Analytic methodology, this work examines a set of videorecorded interactions collected in one Italian ECE center ("nido"), particularly focusing on the verbal and multimodal resources employed by ECEC teachers as they manage episodes, where the children diverge from an expected course of action. Analyses reveal that the educators employ a variety of multimodal resources to orchestrate the child's attention and actions toward the desired course of activity, which open spaces where the child's agency, however more or less strongly reprimanded, is admitted and negotiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

\nPractical ImplicationsDrawing from an Italian study conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown, in this article we focus on the perspectives of Residential Care for Children (RCC) managers. Our aims are: to examine how they perceive RCC interactions with external stakeholders during lockdown – specifically within Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, encompassing meso- and exo-systems –, and to identify managers’ traits affecting communication with the abovementioned systems. The study involved 152 RCC managers on duty during the lockdown, utilizing the EWF Questionnaire – an anonymous, self-administered survey developed ad hoc for this investigation. The analysis employed descriptive statistics and Chi-square analysis. Results indicate that during the lockdown managers had good communication with RCC meso-system. In terms of professional relationships, RCC managers reported a closer affinity with social workers. Managers’ age, tenure in the role and field experience had an impact on the perception of communication within meso- and exo-systems. The number of units managed and their education degree did not show statistically significant impact. In the final sections, we discuss implications for RCC, interprofessional collaboration, and strategies for enhancing intersystem communication. RCC managers’ age, field experience and tenure in the role must be considered, as they influence specific intersystem communication.RCC managers require specific training and organizational support to communicate effectively with meso- and exo-systems.Policymakers should fund interprofessional training programs to enhance relationships between RCC internal and external stakeholders.RCC managers’ age, field experience and tenure in the role must be considered, as they influence specific intersystem communication.RCC managers require specific training and organizational support to communicate effectively with meso- and exo-systems.Policymakers should fund interprofessional training programs to enhance relationships between RCC internal and external stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviews two Italian educators Renzo Titone and Clotilde Pontecorvo. Literacy education issues in Italy; Type of training that literacy teachers have in relation to literacy education; Literacy assessment available in Italy.

Previous research indicates that social support is beneficial to cancer patients in adjusting to the stress of the disease. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of 36 semi-structured interviews, this article explores sources and types of social support in Arab-Palestinian women with breast cancer. Results show that members of the immediate family, husbands in particular, are reported to be the most supportive social sources. Given the limitations that characterize access to cancer care in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) and the collectivistic values of the society, women with breast cancer seem to rely mainly on their husbands to handle emotional, functional and informational needs. Emotional support includes the provision of care, trust, reassurance, and companionship. Functional support includes the practical assistance that the cancer patients receive in terms of financial support, attendance during treatment or help with domestic chores and childcare. Accessing appropriate informational support can be quite challenging in the OPT since available information is not always reliable. The family plays a key role in mediating communication with doctors. Contact with breast cancer patients and survivors is also a source of supporting information, with however a possible negative impact in terms of emotional coping. In this context, the immediate family becomes a fundamental resource for coping and a relational space that mediates connections with others, including doctors, acting as a "proxy" between the patient and the social environment. Findings are discussed in light of the historical and sociocultural context of the OPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on conversation analyses of oncology consultations collected in Italy, the article examines the communication practices used to recommend treatments. We found that the oncologist formulates the treatment recommendation ( TR) for high-risk patients in terms of a 'mandatory' choice and for low-risk patients as an 'optional' type of decision. In the first case the doctor presses to reach a decision during the visit while in the second case leaves the decision open-ended. Results show that high-risk patients have less time to decide, are pressured towards choosing an option, but have more opportunities for involvement in TR during the visit. Low-risk patients instead have more time and autonomy to make a choice, but they are also less involved in the decision-making in the visit time. Moreover, we document that TR is organised through sequential activities in which the oncologist informs the patient of alternative therapeutic options while at the same time building a case for the kind of treatment she/he believes to be best for the patient's health. We suggest that in this field risk plays a key role in decision-making which should be better understood with further studies and taken into account in the debate on shared decision-making and patient-centred communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: the article analyzes how a doctor delivers diagnoses and recommends treatment in a set of post-surgical oncological visits. The pattern of activities are explored in two different cases: when all diagnostic information is available, and when information is still missing.Methods: The data consist of 12 video-recorded visits of breast cancer patients to a senior oncologist. Conversation analysis is employed to analyze sequences in which the delivery of diagnosis and treatment recommendation unfold.Results: The oncologist formulates the treatment recommendation as a logical consequence deriving from the available diagnostic information. In cases when definitive diagnostic information on the cancer type is missing, the oncologist opts to anticipate hypothetical diagnostic scenarios, and to draw the therapeutic alternatives as logical outcomes envisionable from each of the different scenarios.Conclusion: The communicative practice appears functional to encourage the patients' acceptance of a single treatment option rather than present the patients to and involve them in deliberating over multiple available treatment alternatives.Practice Implications: Rather than a normative adoption of existing protocols of communication in cancer care, a better understanding of communication practices in use can help practitioners to reflect upon and make intentional choices about different arrangements for the patient's participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates miscommunication in sequences of talk where an oncologist asks about patients' co-morbidities, that is, their other illnesses beyond cancer. Using conversation analysis, we examine ways in which the participants identify and manage two sources of miscommunication: a divergence in the doctor's and the patient's understandings about the scope of the question; and a divergence in the doctor's and the patient's (and sometimes their companion's) understandings about the matters that the question targets. Our findings have implications for practice, highlighting ways in which clinicians and patients can manage these sources of miscommunication. These include practices to retrospectively or pre-emptively manage ambiguities and to check the accuracy of patients' answers. Additionally, our study addresses some theoretical and methodological problems in the study of miscommunication. Our data consist of 25 video-recorded first consultations in an Italian hospital; the participants speak Italian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes an emic-oriented system for coding doctor-patient communication in oncological consultations (ONCode). The system aims to capture patient-centered communication practices, with particular attention to ethnically discordant interactions. ONCode is squarely focused on interactional aspects, assessed through seven dimensions. Video consultations with three oncologists and 19 patients (10 native Italians and nine non-native Italians) were coded with ONCode by two coders and with VR-CoDES by a different coder. Inter-rater reliability was tested by using ICC. Group differences (native vs. non-native) were assessed with linear mixed model analyses. This pilot study showed that the ONCode is fairly reliable, sensitive to patients' characteristics and contextual variables, and does not overlap with an established coding system such as the VR-CoDES. Moreover, the system enabled the identification of differences in communication in consultations with native and non-native patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On March 9, 2020 attendance classes in Italian universities were suspended due to Covid-19 Pandemic. Thanks to the fast actions put in place by Sapienza University Governance and to the efforts made by all components of the university, the face-to-face courses were turned into on-line courses in only one week. This sudden change has been an even more exciting challenge for the Faculties of Medicine, whose members were also involved in the frontline battle against the virus. Anatomy academics, recognizing the challenges as opportunities to innovate anatomy teaching, set up at the same time: a specific survey to investigate students' perspective on educational preferences and their mood; a longitudinal quantitative study to compare, for the first time in the same student's population, exam grades after face-to-face classes and after online classes. The students, although with different motivations, considered valid both modes of attendance. Exam grades statistical analysis showed that anatomy exam marks after the online course had a higher average value (statistically significant) and with an excellent correlation factor, compared to the marks obtained at the end of the face-to-face course. Considering our data as a whole, we can suggest that face-to-face classes and online classes, rather than being interchangeable education modes, should be considered as modes with different characteristics that offer different educational benefits. These advantages may have different relevance for individual students, depending on their specific needs and individual preferences. This suggests the opportunity to propose customizable courses, centered on the student's needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital natives are growing up in a new media ecosystem, where the use of the net and social media is a daily practice. Even if there is a growing interest in the use of social media in university education, there is a paucity of outcome based, empirical studies assessing the impact of social media in medical education, in particular in the Human anatomy field. To facilitate human anatomy learning and teacher-student relation, a Sapienza university of Rome human anatomy teacher (HAT) created a professional Facebook profile (HATPFP) and a You Tube channel dedicated to human anatomy topics (HATYTC). In order to assess the usefulness of social media not only in human anatomy learning but also to get in touch with the human anatomy teacher, at the end of each course a survey was created than distributed to the students of health professions and medicine and surgery degree courses. Our data, the first referring to the Italian context, show a useful and positive opinion by most students on the use of social media Facebook and You Tube in the teaching of Human Anatomy. Although within the limits of an exploratory study, we have highlighted how social media can be an effective support for anatomy teaching by facilitating social interactions (in terms of time reduction, simplification, immediacy, less formality), improving learning (in terms of memorization and understanding of concepts: and notions of anatomy), and making students autonomous in their search for new knowledge of anatomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variety, complexity and uncertainty in the therapy outcomes of cancer illness make the treatment recommendation (TR) in oncology a "monumentally difficult task". Previous studies have distinguished unilateral and bilateral formats of treatment recommendations, accordingly to whether, or to what extent, the patient's perspective is included in the consideration of therapeutic options. Others have also shown how the oncologists' presentation of therapeutic options varied accordingly to the severity of the diagnosis and the availability of alternatives. Yet, no study has systemically dentified and compared components of treatment recommendation in oncology on a common set of patients and clinicians. This paper analyzes how different options in breast cancer treatments - radiotherapy, hormone therapy and chemotherapy - are presented and discussed in a set of 12 first post-surgical breast cancer visits carried out by two oncologists of high experience and seniority in two Italian hospitals. Treatment recommendation sequences involving these three option types were analyzed using the methods of conversation analysis. They were also coded for the mention of side effects and treatment burden, and for whether consent to the recommendation was invited, or expressed by the patient. Results show that radiotherapy is presented as presupposed as an extension of surgery and is not further discussed, and hormone therapy is delivered as good news and as not implying any health or lifestyle burdens. Treatment burdens were raised in the much more extensive discussions of chemotherapy, which were also accompanied by a higher chance that the patient was asked for consent to therapy. Implications are drawn as regards the extent to which clinical practice meets theory in communication protocols available in oncology, and how to consider the doctor-patient partnership and the concept of shared decision-making in such an encounter. • Oncologists deliver recommendation for different cancer treatments in different ways. • Radiotherapy is presented as presupposed, hormonetherapy is delivered as good news. • Oncologists anticipate the patient's burden only in chemotherapy. • There is a gap between protocols and communication practices in oncology. • Consent -gaining process needs be followed across time and settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]