Working front of house : receptionists' accounts of working in inner London general practices

'Ibis thesis is concerned with developing and presenting a sociological interpretation of the receptionist occupational role and its position within the social relations of general practice health . care using the concepts of street level bureaucracy, tacit knowledge transfer, and emotion work. Unlike other medically trained health service colleagues, there is limited sociological evidence about the contribution that receptionists make to NHS general practice service dcfurcry, even though these staff are the first point of contact ,'vith the public. The study reported on in this thesis explores receptionists' feelings and experiences of their occupational role, together with the associated relationships and tasks based on the analysis of combination of depth interviews and focus group discussions with thirty seven women working as receptionists in a range of inner London general practice settings, across two South London Prima.ry Care Trust areas. These data are contextualised within the sociological, and specifically medical and organisational sociologicallitcratures, that focus on the organisation of activities and work-related relationships in health care settings among administrative staff with direct public interaction. The thesis reports on how receptionists are socialised into their non-medical roles within a health care context by analysing the accounts of occupational histories from women who have been working as receptionists for a year or more. Attention in this thesis extends to the social relations of health care and the position of the receptionists vis-a-vis GP colleagues and the general public in the course of routine contact with members of the public. Through this inquiry, problematic work-related experiences and interpersonal encounters are identified, together with the ways in which the receptionists in different types of general practice have handled them. In this, consideration is given to the kinds of knowledge used in handling those situations and how that knowledge has been acquired. This thesis concludes by presenting the implications of these data from this study for medical sociology's understanding of general practice workforces and more generally for the organisation of administrative staff in health care settings.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo