A collective clinical gaze: Negotiating decisions in a surgical ward.

This article explores collaborative aspects of clinical decision-making, based on a focused ethnography and video recordings of meetings in clinical practices in two wards for gastro-intestinal diseases at the surgical department of a large Norwegian university hospital. By studying clinicians' communication during patient introduction, handling uncertainties and surprises, collecting information, and negotiating acceptance, we elaborate on how collaborative teamwork in the hospital ward is developed. Further, by drawing on detailed studies of meetings, in which patients are not physically represented, we explore ways in which a 'collective clinical gaze' of each patient is constructed on the basis of documents, memory, and a consensus-directed discussion among clinicians who are present.

When trustworthiness matters: how trust influences knowledge-production and knowledge-sharing in a surgical department.

Transferring clinical knowledge and bringing various representations of clinical knowledge together is crucial as support for clinical decision-making. While previous scholarship has elaborated patients' trust of healthcare providers as well as the healthcare system, this article emphasizes trust as a catalyst for clinical knowledge production. Using an observational study of a surgical department at a large Norwegian hospital, the article focuses on knowledge transfer between surgeons in a surgical department.