School of English, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Health Expect. 2021 Apr;24(2):719-727. doi: 10.1111/hex.13222. Epub 2021 Feb 24.
This paper presents an analysis of 32 narratives written by patients waiting for assessment at a transgender health clinic (THC) in England. Narratives are autobiographical free texts, designed to allow patients to describe in their own words their experiences of their gender identity and/or transition prior to a clinic appointment, as part of the assessment process.
Narratives were analysed to identify actions prospective patients had taken to manage their (usually lengthy) waiting times, so that these 'coping strategies' could be shared with future patients.
Corpus linguistic methodology was utilized to identify common patterns across the whole corpus of text-based data, augmented with more detailed sociolinguistic analysis of individual narratives.
There are broad commonalities in the way the transition experience is described across the corpus in terms of presentation of key experiences and feelings. There are specific descriptions of a number of recurring coping strategies, both positive and negative.
The empowerment value of writing these narratives may be limited; the existence of recurring key features suggests that patients may feel they have to present their experiences in certain ways to be accepted for treatment. However, dissemination of some positive coping strategies may help future clients of THCs to better cope with waiting times, as well as assisting practitioners in THCs in supporting their patients during this wait.
PATIENT/PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: The clinic's Service Users' Research Advisory Group contributed to formulating the objective and design of the study. Results were presented at the clinic's annual PPI conference.
本文对英国一家跨性别健康诊所（THC） 32 名患者的评估前叙事进行了分析。叙事是自传式的自由文本，旨在让患者用自己的语言描述他们在就诊前的性别认同和/或过渡经历，作为评估过程的一部分。
分析叙事，以确定潜在患者为管理（通常较长）等待时间而采取的行动，以便将这些“应对策略”与未来的患者分享。
利用语料库语言学方法识别整个基于文本数据语料库中的常见模式，并对个别叙事进行更详细的社会语言学分析。
在整个语料库中，过渡经历的描述方式存在广泛的共同点，包括呈现关键经历和感受的方式。有一些反复出现的应对策略的具体描述，既有积极的也有消极的。
撰写这些叙事的赋权价值可能有限；反复出现的关键特征表明，患者可能觉得自己必须以某些方式呈现自己的经历，才能获得治疗。然而，传播一些积极的应对策略可能有助于 THC 的未来客户更好地应对等待时间，并帮助 THC 的从业者在等待期间支持他们的患者。
患者/公众贡献：该诊所的服务用户研究咨询小组为制定研究目标和设计做出了贡献。研究结果在诊所的年度 PPI 会议上进行了展示。
