|
Overview back to top
The Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma offers diversified courses in the area of health communication. Our close working relationships with OU’s Health Sciences Center and area hospitals provide both faculty and graduate students with great opportunities to collaborate with health care providers and to develop research projects that have theoretical, practical, and social significance. The faculty members and students in health communication hold regular meetings to discuss research opportunities and join research efforts. Because the department has received high rankings in the NCA 2004 Doctoral Reputational Study in various fields (e.g., health, intercultural, interpersonal, small group, mass and political communication), the department also presents unparalleled opportunities for faculty members and students to collaborate and develop career paths that meet their individual objectives. In short, the Department offers courses, research opportunities, and practical experiences that support ambitious investigation in the broad field of health communication.
Courses back to top
Department Requirements
COMM 5003 Quantitative Research Methods
COMM 5013 Introduction to Graduate Studies
COMM 5313 Qualitative Research Methods
COMM 6023 Research Task Force (6-9 hours)
COMM 6314 History and Theory of Communication
Health Communication Area Requirements
COMM 5263 Health Communication
COMM 5960 Directed Readings
COMM 6423 Communication in Healthcare Organizations
COMM xxxx Communication in Intercultural Health Contexts (pending)
COMM xxxx Health Communication in Social Support Groups (pending)
COMM xxxx Health Communication Campaigns (pending)
Health Communication Area Electives
COMM 5113 Nonverbal Communication
COMM 5213 Interpersonal Communication
COMM 5233 Social Change
COMM 5253 Cross-Cultural Communication
COMM 5453 Social Influence
COMM 5553 Persuasion Campaigns
COMM 6970 Affective Processes in Communication
Faculty back to top
Dan O’Hair, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma
Research Areas: Communication in Healthcare Organizations; Risk Communication; Bioterrorism
Teaching Areas: Communication in Healthcare Organizations; Health Communication; Organizational Communication; Conflict Management
Elaine Hsieh, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research Areas: Cross-Cultural Health Communication, Provider-Patient Communication, Medical Interpreting, Bilingual Health Communication
Teaching Areas: Interpersonal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Health Communication in Intercultural Contexts.
Claude Miller, Ph.D., University of Arizon
Research Areas: Adolescent Health Risk Prediction and Message Design, Effects of Mortality Salience on Health Message Reacceptance, Emotion & Health
Teaching Areas: Affective Processes, Persuasion, Social Influence, Comm & Emotion, Health Communication, Persuasion Campaigns.
Sandra Ragan , Ph.D., University of Texas
Research areas: women's health communication; palliative and hospice communication; the use of narrative in health care interactions
Teaching area: interpersonal health communication
Kevin Wright, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma
Research areas: Health communication, computer-mediated communication, interpersonal communication, and life span communication
Teaching areas: Health Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Computer-Mediated Communication, Quantitative Methods
Summary of Department Research Completed or in Process back to top
Dr. Elaine Hsieh is currently conducting a project (under review for NIH R03 funding) that examines providers’ perceptions of, attitudes about, and expectations for the roles and performances of medical interpreters. By examining providers’ attitudes toward medical interpreters as an intervention tool to improve the providers’ and patients’ health literacy, she aims to develop communication models and training programs to facilitate effective and appropriate communication between providers and patients who do not share the same culture/language.
Dr. Sandra Ragan, Dr. Kevin Wright, Dr. Elaine Hsieh, and doctoral student Eileen Gilchrist are working on a project with faculty members from OU-Health Science Center to examine providers and patients’ communication about risk (e.g., side effects and adverse events) and its relationship to patient satisfaction.
Dr. Dan O’Hair is completing projects with various graduate students and colleagues focusing on physician referral patterns, patient advice seeking strategies, bioterrorism preparedness, and media framing of healthcare organizations.
Dr. Claude Miller is currently researching the roles of sensation seeking and psychological reactance in risk prediction, and in the design of substance messages targeting high-risk adolescent populations. A separate line of research is underway with graduate students and colleagues examining the effects of subliminal mortality salience on health, security, and risk messages. Dr. Miller is also beginning a related line or research exploring the effects of mortality salience on various life and health issues related to aging.
Dr. Sandy Ragan is conducting several ongoing studies with graduate students, including: an ethnography of the use of humor in physical rehabilitation units; a qualitative investigation of quality of life in cancer survivors; and family caregivers' communication with critically ill family members. She also is involved in ongoing research on the communication of hospice and palliative care.
Dr. Wright is currently conducting a study of the use of computer-mediated support groups as weak tie support networks along with Dr. Claude Miller and graduate students Jennifer Becker, Eileen Gilchrist, and Toni Siriko. In addition, Dr. Wright is in the process of completing a study of social support among people with cancer within a comprehensive cancer care facility. In addition, Dr. Wright is in the process of developing a study of communication and patient satisfaction among Oklahoma healthcare facilities using telemedicine and other types of e-health.
Contacts back to top
Elaine Hsieh
610 Elm Ave. Room 101,
Norman, OK 73019
Phone Number: 405-325-3154
Fax Number: 405-325-7625
Websites
University of Oklahoma http://www.ou.edu of Oklahoma http://www.ou.edu
Department of Communication http://www.ou.edu/cas/deptcomm
|
