This special issue identifies three interrelated constructs--discourse, expertise, and the definition and management of risk--located in various healthcare sites: genetic counseling, nursing, and medical practice. The papers highlight the relationship between the management of risk situations and the nature of expertise displayed or achieved by practitioners and their patients/clients. The papers suggest that healthcare outcomes can be related closely to the quality of the discoursal encounters between professional practitioners and their patients/clients, and/or among professional practitioners themselves. Presenting differentiated goals and outcomes from a range of professional encounters, the research focuses on the resource of discoursal strategies drawn upon in the achievement of discoursal and professional goals by both professional and lay participants.

Christopher N. Candlin, Sally Candlin