The 6th English for Healthcare conference in Brighton was a real success! It’s always great to see so many familiar faces, old friends and colleagues, as well as to meet new ones from around the world. Thank you so much for coming! Some of you came from far away, some of you with adventurous flights redirected to different airports to those scheduled. Despite the rainy weather, the only thing we couldn’t book for you, you kept smiling from the very beginning to the very last moments. Your happy faces were a huge reward for our efforts!
There is no doubt that this has been the most multinational and multicultural English for Healthcare conference ever. Your willingness to join our diverse community shows that EALTHY plays an invaluable role in your professional development. Since the 5th English for Healthcare conference in Belgrade 2022, EALTHY has moved into a new era, but our mission stayed the same. We are here to support you in developing and delivering outstanding English for Healthcare courses, with access to a growing bank of teaching materials, articles, information, and research, as well as the bi-annual conference, regular webinars and other events. To support our work, EALTHY’s long-time supporter SLC has become our partner. Chris Moore and his team are working to provide a rich resource bank of teaching materials and events for your professional development via the EALTHY website.
The three eminent keynote speakers delivered thought-provoking talks, which covered a variety of issues, from teaching medical humanities, through multilingualism in healthcare, to vaccination-related language. John Skelton, President of EALTHY and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Communication at Birmingham University Medical School, addressed the topic of integrating the arts into clinical communication skills training. Emma Brooks, a lecturer in Language Learning and Intercultural Communication and Honorary Research Fellow at University College London, Institute of Education, discussed how to overcome the inherent challenges of a ‘super-diverse’ multilingual, multicultural healthcare workforce providing care to an equally diverse patient body. Zsofia Demjen, an Associate Professor at University College London, presented the findings of her research on how institutional language plays a role in uncertainty and hesitancy when trying to make vaccination-related decisions, examining the impact of institutional terms on lay discourse.
We’d very much like to thank all our members for your continual support, both online and face to face at the English for Healthcare conference. We got some really positive feedback on the latter for the variety of topics chosen, all providing much food for thought to take home. Many of you also appreciated the communal on-campus accommodation, which provided an additional space away from the venue for more networking and making friends. And the lunches, dinners and croissants all seemed to go down well!
Last but not least, a big ‘thank you’ to the sponsors who not only presented their work as a part of the programme or at their stands, but also joined in with the social events for many informal chats.
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