From withholding to accounting: A single case analysis on discursive interprofessionality in the pediatric clinic

In contemporary health care practices, clients often ask professionals to take into account, position toward, or otherwise deal with what other absent professionals (are said to) have said or done about the same issue. We call this phenomenon discursive interprofessionality (DI). This article focuses on a perspicuous case involving DI in childcare (i.e., how a pediatrician deals with the voice of the nursery educators reported by the parent of a 1-year-old baby in the pediatric clinic). Adopting a conversation analysis approach, this single-case study shows the pediatrician's reluctance to affiliate with a mother who constructs the nursery educators as unreliable witnesses of what occurs at the nursery. The analysis illustrates how the pediatrician's stance-taking toward the nursery educators’ reported voice is locally occasioned and changes along a continuum, ranging from avoiding stance-taking to displaying affiliation with the nursery educators’ reported voice. We contend that this varying positioning depends on what the client is doing by reporting the other professional's voice (i.e., undermining the professional's credibility). In conclusion, we stress the relevance and possible risks of DI for childcare professionals, who are regularly asked by parents to take a stance on what other institutional caregivers have (reportedly) said or done.