CURRENT PROJECTS
“Safe communication during COVID-19” (COM-COVID)
The Covid-19 pandemic confronted us with discomforting levels of uncertainty. Our elevated communication activity caused an abundance of messages circulating through all channels: Politicians, scientists, news media, and opinion leaders all voiced their opinions, sometimes in disagreement with one another. Many of us found ourselves in a sense-making chaos, in the context of a global crisis that threatened our health and the health of millions of people around the globe. This national representative study is co-funded by the Swiss health ministry (BAG), the Department of Health at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, and Stefan Dräger, to illuminate how the Covid-19 communications of the government, the news media, the social media and interpersonal relationships affected people’s pandemic coping, trust in health authorities, adherence to pandemic control measures, engagement in conspiracy theories, and mental health. First results are summarized in the following video:
“Safe communication in mountain rescues”
Safe communication is the fundament for successful patient care. In 2020, the CAHQS launched a new research project that investigates the extent to which the implementation of Prof. Hannawa’s SACCIA Safe Communication competencies can improve the quality and safety of care in the context of mountain rescues – a particularly challenging care setting that is characterized by many handoffs, high-stakes patient conditions, extreme time pressure and profoundly inter-professional teams (consisting of helicopter pilots, physicians, paramedics and mountain guides). This innovative project is carried out in cooperation with the mountain rescue service Valais, Switzerland.
RESEARCH PRIORITIES
Quality care
Our research assesses the role of interpersonal communication processes in the provision of high quality healthcare. We investigate the extent to which communication science can contribute to improved quality measures.
MEDICATION SAFETY
Insufficient shared understanding between care participants frequently leads to misuse, overuse, and unindicated use of medications. Our research investigates how safe communication can enhance medication safety, particularly with respect to sound-alike and look-alike medications, with a core focus on inter-professional teamwork and digitized care solutions.
ERROR PREVENTION
Our research examines communication processes that commonly contribute to preventable adverse events. We evaluate the extent to which a communication science perspective can contribute to enhanced guidelines for safer care.
ERROR DISCLOSURE
We assess ways in which communication science can enhance best practice guidelines for competent error disclosures. Our aim is to develop an evidence-based, transdisciplinary definition of “competent error disclosure” that takes into account all stakeholders' perspectives, including perceptual variations between patients and providers.
RECENT PUBLISHED WORK
Hannawa, A. F. (2024). Shared decision-making in an era of silo-based care (- or what it takes to tango). Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management.
Stojanov, A., & Hannawa, A. F. (2023). Toward French and Italian Language Validations of the Conspiracy Mentality Scale (CMS). Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences.
Stojanov, A. & Hannawa, A. F. (2023). Validating a German version of the Conspiracy Mentality Scale (CMS). Journal of Personality Assessment.
Hannawa, A. F. & Stojanov, A. (2022). “Compliant Supporters,” “Anxious Skeptics,” and “Defiant Deniers”: A Latent Profile Analysis of People’s Responses to Covid-19 Communications. Health Communication.
Hannawa, A. F. (2022). The quality of public communication during COVID-19: Symptoms of a wider malaise. Swiss Medical Weekly.
Hannawa, A. F. (2022). Beziehungen pflegen: Die Kunst einer „SACCIA“-sicheren Kommunikation. Psychiatrische Pflege.
Hannawa, A. F., Wu, A. W., Kolyada, A., Potemkina, A., Donaldson, L. (2022). The aspects of healthcare quality that are important to health professionals and patients: A qualitative study. Patient Education & Counseling.
Hannawa, A. F. (2021). “We’re on our way:” A Message from the Mountains. Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management.
Hannawa, A. F. (2021). Definitely Defining: How Pressing the “Pause” Button Empowers the Force of the “In-Between.“ Health Communication.
Hannawa, A. F. & Frankel, R. (2018). "It matters what I think, not what you say": Scientific evidence for a Medical Error Disclosure Competence (MEDC) model. Journal of Patient Safety.
Hannawa, A. F. (2020). The Mind of an Academic, the Voice of a Patient: My field experience with safe communication. Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management.
Hannawa, A. F., Spitzberg, B. H., Childress, M., Frankel, R., Pham, J., Wu, A. (2020). Communication Science Lessons for Patient Safety and Quality Care. Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management.
Fischer, F., Helmer, S., Rogge, A., Arraras, J., Buchholz, A., Hannawa, A. F., et al. (2019). Outcomes and outcome measures used in evaluation of communication training in oncology - a systematic literature review, an expert workshop, and recommendations for future research. BMC Cancer, 19(1):808.
Lippke, S., Wienert, J., Keller, F.M., Derksen, C. (…) & Hannawa, A. F. (2019). Communication and patient safety in gynecology and obstetrics - study protocol of an intervention study. BMC Health Services Research, Vol. 19, Article number: 908.
Hannawa, A.F. (2019). When facing our fallibility constitutes “safe practice”: Further evidence for the Medical Error Disclosure Competence (MEDC) guidelines. Patient Education & Counseling, 102(10):1840-1846.
Pek, J. H., de Korne, D. F., Hannawa, A. F., Hong Leong, B. S., et al. (2019). Dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation for paediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A structured evaluation of communication issues using the SACCIA safe communication typology. Resuscitation, 139, pp. 144-151.
Amati, R., Bellandi, T., Kaissi, A. A. & Hannawa, A. F. (2019). Testing the Integrative Quality Care Assessment Tool (INQUAT): Comparing U.S. and Italian managers’ perceptions of quality. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance.
Amati, R., Kaissi, A. A., & Hannawa, A. F. (2018). Determinants of good and poor quality as perceived by U.S. health care managers: A grounded taxonomy based on evidence from narratives of care. Journal of Health Organization and Management.
Hannawa, A. F. & Postel, S. (2018). SACCIA-Sichere Kommunikation: Evidenzbasierte Kernkompetenzen mit Fallstudien aus der Pflege-Praxis. Berlin/Boston: Walter deGruyter.
Hannawa, A. F. (2018). "SACCIA Safe Communication:" Five core competencies for safe and high-quality care. Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, 23(3), 99-107.
Amati, R., Brook, R. H., Kaissi, A. A. & Hannawa, A. F. (2017). Evolving dimensions of quality care: Comparing physicians and managerial perspectives. In A. A. McDermott, M. Kitchener & M. Exworthy. Managing improvement in healthcare: Attaining, sustaining and spreading quality. Palgrave Macmillan.
Hannawa, A. F. (2017). What constitutes “Competent Error Disclosure”? Insights from a national focus group study in Switzerland. Swiss Medical Weekly, 147:w14427.
Hannawa, A. F. (2017). Validation. In J. Matthes, C. S. Davis & R. F. Potter, International encyclopedia of communication research methods. Wiley.
Hannawa, A. F. & Jonitz, G. (2017). Neue Wege für Patientensicherheit: Sichere Kommunikation -- Evidenzbasierte Kernkompetenzen mit Fallstudien aus der medizinischen Praxis. Berlin/Boston: Walter deGruyter.
Hannawa, A. F., Wendt, A., Day L. (2017). New horizons for patient safety: Safe communication -- Evidence-based core competencies with case studies from nursing. Berlin: Walter DeGruyter.
Hannawa, A. F., Wu, A., Juhasz, R. (2017). New horizons for patient safety: Understanding communication -- Case studies for physicians. Berlin: Walter DeGruyter.
Øvretveit, J., Wu, A., Street, R., Thilo, F., Thimbleby, H., Hannawa, A. F. (2017). Using and choosing digital health technologies: A communication science perspective. Journal of Health Organization and Management.
Roter, D. L., Wolff, J. L., Wu, A. W., & Hannawa, A. F. (2017). Patient and family empowerment as agents of ambulatory care safety and quality. BMJ Quality & Safety.
Hannawa, A. F., Shigemoto, Y., & Little, T. (2016). Medical errors: Disclosure styles, interpersonal forgiveness, and outcomes. Social Science & Medicine, 156, 29-38.