A study on clinical text messaging found that clinicians primarily use emojis to convey emotions and facilitate communication. Emojis were used to add emotive content and establish, maintain, or close communication channels. The study emphasized the value of emojis in disambiguating messages and managing interpersonal dynamics. Positive emotions were predominantly conveyed, even when expressing negative affect. The study suggests that concerns about using emojis in professional communication may be overstated, as they can improve team communication and relationships. Further research, including natural language processing analysis, is recommended.
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open examined the use of emojis and emoticons in clinical text messaging and their impact on communication among healthcare providers. The researchers discovered that clinicians predominantly employed these visual symbols to convey emotions and initiate, sustain, or conclude conversations.
The study, conducted at a Midwestern hospital between July 2020 and March 2021, involved a qualitative analysis of 1,319 clinical text message threads. Among these threads, approximately seven percent contained emojis or emoticons. Emojis were primarily utilized to add emotive content, accounting for 61 percent of their usage.
The researchers highlighted the varied purposes of emojis within the sample. While some were intended to be humorous, others served more practical functions. In certain cases, the presence of emojis significantly altered the interpretation of messages, transforming a thread’s tone from sincere to sarcastic, for example.
The authors of the study emphasized the importance of this disambiguation feature in healthcare communication, where ambiguity is common, and appropriate emotional expression is crucial during challenging situations.
Moreover, clinicians commonly used emojis to establish and maintain communication channels, known as phatic usage, accounting for 32 percent of their overall usage. The most frequently employed emoji in the sample was the thumbs-up symbol, constituting 39 percent of all emojis used. Clinicians employed the thumbs-up emoji similarly to the thumbs-up button available in the clinical text messaging interface, indicating message receipt or acknowledging a plan of action.
This phatic use of emojis served to confirm a shared understanding of medical situations and also contributed to managing interpersonal dynamics by softening message tones and enhancing politeness.
The researchers found that clinicians primarily used emojis to convey positive emotions rather than negative ones. Even emojis that expressed negative affect often did so in a manner that could improve the relationship between the sender and the recipient. For instance, apologies or expressions of empathy were commonly conveyed through negative affect emojis, thereby facilitating the repair of interpersonal dynamics.
Contrary to concerns raised by popular media, the study’s results indicated that using emojis and emoticons in professional communication may not be as inappropriate as presumed. Instead, the researchers suggested that emojis played a valuable role in team communication within healthcare by efficiently conveying positive emotions and fostering agreement.
The study concluded by acknowledging the need for further research on the use of emojis and emoticons among clinicians, including the application of natural language processing (NLP) techniques for analysis.
