How Is She? Information and the Surgical Waiting Lounge.

This paper describes an exploratory ethnographic study of the information-seeking behavior of visitors in the Surgical Waiting Lounge at the UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion in December 2013. A model of information practice is examined in relation to existing information-seeking behavior theories, frameworks, and approaches. The finding that visitors' information poverty and inhibited informationseeking behavior manifested in a process of information gleaning--notable for its hypervigilance and meaning inference--is discussed. Similarities are drawn between this behavior, crisis situations, and situational anxiety disorder. Finally, recommendations are described in the context of anxiety-reducing interventions and established post-operative information practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]