Maria Brann

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1805/26670

COVID-19 Birth Stories

In this year-long project, Professor Brann and her research partner, Professor Jennifer Bute, first conducted focus groups with women across the country who had given birth during a time when their state or local governments had issued stay-at-home orders because of the COVID pandemic. Then, they followed up a year later by interviewing the same women individually to learn more about raising a newborn during a pandemic.

The researchers found that the isolation of stay-at-home orders and changes in health care policies, such as limitations on hospital visitors and in-person appointments, had a profound effect on women. Women discussed in detail the mental health challenges they faced, such as postpartum depression and anxiety, that they felt were heightened because of the pandemic. Women also discussed the challenges of navigating who had access to visit or hold their newborn, which involved keeping their babies safe while contending with family expectations about seeing the baby. The women who participated in the study were grateful for the opportunity to connect with other women with similar experiences to know that they are not alone. They provided recommendations for helping pregnant women and new moms who are navigating motherhood in an unprecedented time, and even spoke to the media about this project so that other women would feel supported.

Professor Brann's translation of research into supportive groups for new mothers is another excellent example of how IUPUI's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 16

Breaking Bad News: A Randomized Trial Assessing Resident Performance After Novel Video Instruction
(Cureus, 2021-06-05) Shanks, Anthony; Brann, Maria; Bute, Jennifer J.; Borse, Vyvian; Tonismae, Tiffany; Scott, Nikki; Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine
Introduction; Delivering bad news to patients is an essential skill for physicians, which is often developed through patient encounters. Residents in our program participate in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) on an annual basis to evaluate their skills in these scenarios. Our objectives were to develop an educational video and determine if an educational video provided to residents prior to OSCEs would improve performance. Methods: Previous OSCEs were reviewed to identify best practices and to create a four-minute video highlighting the "do's and don'ts" of delivering bad news. Residents in two post-graduate year (PGY) classes were randomized to watch the video prior to or after a standardized patient encounter. Three masked reviewers assessed resident empathy, attention, and understanding on 10 five-point Likert scales and assigned a total score (scale: 0-50). Hedges' g was used to assess mean scores and effect size. Results: A total of 17 residents participated in the evaluation: nine in the pre-OSCE video group and eight in the control group. Residents randomized to the video prior to the patient encounter had a mean score of 37.01 (SD=3.6). Residents randomized to the control group had a mean score of 35.38 (SD=4.85). Hedges' g was 0.37 (95% CI: -0.59 to 1.33). Conclusion: Residents randomized to the video group had a small increase in OSCE performance, which was not statistically significant. The novel video was helpful and addresses the need for a quick pre-assessment educational tool, though interns and graduating medical students may be a more appropriate target audience for instruction.
“It’s Hidden, After All”: A Modified Delphi Study Exploring Faculty and Students’ Perceptions of a Graduate Professional Seminar in Communication
(Central States Communication Association, 2020) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Brann, Maria; The Professional Seminar Delphi Working Group; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Graduate student socialization has been studied in multiple disciplines, including communication. As their career trajectories change, faculty must consider how to socialize students into the field and their subsequent careers. Using a modified Delphi survey, we examined the differences in faculty and students’ perceptions regarding the content of a graduate professional seminar in communication. Results indicate that students would prefer a focus on implicit norms and the hidden curriculum, while faculty would prefer to focus on disciplinary content. We offer recommendations for developing a course that addresses both needs and, thus, simultaneously attends to the changing job market.
Communicating to promote informed decisions in the context of early pregnancy loss
(Elsevier, 2017) Brann, Maria; Bute, Jennifer J.; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Objective. To evaluate residents’ ability to engage standardized patients in informed decision making during a pregnancy loss scenario. Methods. Forty patient encounters between interns and standardized patients were coded to assess informed decision-making practices, exploration of unexpressed concerns, and support provision. Results. Interns engaged in minimum informed decision making but did not address all of the communicative elements necessary for informed decisions, and most elements were only partially addressed. Patients in this study did not receive information about all management options, their concerns were not addressed, and there was limited support communicated for their decision. Conclusion. This study offers an initial assessment of a communicative approach to evaluate and improve decision making during early pregnancy loss. A comprehensive approach to making informed decisions must include discussion of all management options, exploration of patient preferences and concerns, and support for the patient’s decision. Practice Implications. Healthcare providers could benefit from communication skills training to communicate more effectively with patients to help them make more informed decisions.
Qualitative Assessment of Bad News Delivery Practices during Miscarriage Diagnosis
(SAGE, 2020) Brann, Maria; Bute, Jennifer J.; Foxworthy Scott, Susanna; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Miscarriage is one of the most common pregnancy complications health care providers discuss with patients. Previous research suggests that women’s distress is compounded by ineffective communication with providers, who are usually not trained to deliver bad news using patient-centered dialogue. The purpose of this study was to use a patient-centered approach to examine women’s experiences with and perspectives of communication during a miscarriage to assist in the development of communication training tools for health care providers. During focus groups, 22 women who had experienced miscarriage discussed video-recorded standardized patient-provider interactions and recalled communication during their own miscarriages. Results of a pragmatic iterative analysis of the transcripts suggest training techniques and communication behaviors that should guide education for providers to deliver the diagnosis of and treatment options for early pregnancy loss, such as demonstrating empathy, creating space for processing, checking for understanding, and avoiding medical jargon and emotionally charged language.
Multifaceted Contents and Techniques for Designing Health Communication Courses
(CSCA, 2019) Brann, Maria; Russell, Laura D.; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Health communication courses explore health phenomena from various angles. Whether focusing on interpersonal and organizational relationships or addressing community and national campaigns, instructors may choose from various contents to design these courses. This essay highlights critical questions, contents, and activities useful for instructors seeking information for designing health communication courses. Moreover, the authors reflect on sensitive issues unique to these courses that instructors should take into consideration when teaching.
Rethinking graduate student socialization and identification: how the communication discipline can help
(Informa, 2020-08-24) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Brann, Maria; Ridley-Merriweather, Katherine E.; Bach, Betsy Wackernagel; Department of Communication Studies, IU School of Liberal Arts
Let’s break the silence about miscarriages
(2014-10-10) Bute, Jennifer J.; Brann, Maria
Tensions and Contradictions in Interns’ Communication about Unexpected Pregnancy Loss
(Taylor & Francis, 2019) Bute, Jennifer J.; Brann, Maria; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Early miscarriage is an unexpected pregnancy complication that affects up to 25% of pregnant women. Physicians are often tasked with delivering the bad news of a pregnancy loss to asymptomatic women while also helping them make an informed decision about managing the miscarriage. Assessing the communicative responses, particularly the discursive tensions embedded within providers’ speech, offers insight into the (in)effective communication used in the delivery of bad news and the management of a potentially traumatic medical event. We observed and analyzed transcripts from 40 standardized patient encounters using Baxter’s relational dialectics theory 2.0. Results indicated that interns invoked two primary distal already-spoken discourses: discourses of medicalization of miscarriage and discourses of rationality and informed consent. We contend that tensions and contradictions could affect how women respond to the news of an impending miscarriage and offer practical implications for communication skills training.
Exploring societal-level privacy rules for talking about miscarriage
(Sage, 2019) Bute, Jennifer J.; Brann, Maria; Hernandez, Rachael; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Communication privacy management (CPM) theory posits that culturally specific understandings of privacy guide how people manage private information in everyday conversations. We use the context of miscarriage to demonstrate how societal-level expectations about (in)appropriate topics of talk converge with micro-level decisions about privacy rules and privacy boundary management. More specifically, we explore how people’s perceptions of broad social rules about the topic of miscarriage influence their disclosure decisions. Based on interviews with 20 couples who have experienced pregnancy loss, we examined how couples described miscarriage as a topic that is bound by societal-level expectations about whether and how this subject should be discussed in interpersonal conversations. Participants reflected on their perceptions of societal-level privacy rules for protecting information about their miscarriage experiences and described how these rules affected their own privacy management decisions. We discuss these findings in terms of CPM’s theoretical tools for linking macro-level discourses to everyday talk.
Ethical Engagement Vignettes
(2018-04-16) Price, Mary F.; Leslie, Stephanie; Mulholland, James; Christy, Lisa; Custer, Jennifer; Brann, Maria; Besing, Kari L.

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