Drawing the abdominal pain: A powerful tool to distinguish between organic and functional abdominal pain.

OBJECTIVES: Abdominal pain (AP) in children imposes a large economic burden on the healthcare system. Currently, there are no reliable diagnostic tools to differentiate between organic and functional disorders. We hypothesized from previous research that the analysis of patients' graphic expression of subjective symptoms as well as their interactional behavior adds new ways to differentiate between functional and organic AP. METHODS: Conversation analyses of physician-patient-encounters and graphical expression of AP-based pain were performed. RESULTS: Twenty-two interactions were recorded and analyzed. Fifteen children were diagnosed with organic AP and seven with functional AP. We found marked differences between children with organic and functional AP. For example, all 15 children with organic AP saw the task of drawing a picture of the pain during the interview as a duty, whereas the seven children with functional AP took this as an opportunity to provide detailed descriptions about the nature of the pain, the circumstances, and how the AP impaired their quality of life. CONCLUSION: Analysis of patients' interaction strategies in response to the painting task provides relevant clues as to whether AP is functional or requires further workup for organic causes.

Just go with your body? A conversation analytic study of the transition from first to second stage of labor in UK midwife-led care.

BACKGROUND: The transition from first to second stage of labor is poorly understood. While the onset of second stage is defined by cervical measurement, dilation cannot be directly sensed or externally observed. Thus, uncertainty exists when women report pushing urges before dilation is confirmed. This study aimed to explore how sensations of pushing and uncertainty over progress are interactionally managed. METHODS: We audio/video recorded the labors of 37 women in two midwife-led units in England. Our analysis focused on a subset of 28 recordings that featured discussion of transition from first to second stage of labor. The interactions between midwives, laboring women and their birth partners were transcribed and analyzed using conversation analysis. RESULTS: We identified a 'pushing until proven otherwise' rule granting temporary, contingent authority to bodily urges to push while tracking progress over time. Specifically, midwives supported reported pushing sensations without insisting on examinations. Caution was occasionally expressed in distinguishing between irresistible and forced pushing. Across multiple contractions, midwives watched and waited for alignment of sensations with signs of descent. Where signs of progress were absent over time, examinations were treated as clinically indicated. DISCUSSION: Thus, a complex interplay of women's sensations and midwifery expertise produced care. Compared to past research, our analysis demonstrates increased validation of embodied experience in contemporary midwife-led practice. However, uncertainty still requires navigation through collaborative work. We evidence how this navigation is accomplished in real-time interactions.

Claiming and attributing (dis)taste: Issues of sharing a meal as a competent member.

Eating together is a primordial social activity with robust normative expectations. This study examines a series of instances where appreciative elements about the food during a shared meal are treated as noticeably absent and where some of the participants are attributed to exhibit a negative stance towards the food, which furthermore is used as a resource for engaging in membership categorization. Situated within the cognate approaches of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, this study draws on video recordings of an integrated language and cooking workshop organized for immigrants in the French speaking part of Switzerland. The participants include a French teacher, two chefs and five immigrant women with various native languages. The detailed sequential, multimodal analysis details and explains how the participants treat gustatory features of eating as publicly available and accountable, and how the absence of evaluative elements contribute to the situated achievement of a plural "you" as a group that does not like "this" food. Ascribing (dis)taste for food on behalf of others, occasions accounts for just how to eat, showing the strong normative features that make up to the recognizability of sharing a meal as a competent member - including how sensorial experiences are evaluated and expressed. In this way, this study contributes to our understanding of the (non)ordinary features of eating together as a situated, embodied achievement and social institution that is built in and through interaction.

Companions' contributions to information gathering in Chinese outpatient clinical interaction.

Patients are commonly accompanied to visit clinicians in Chinese outpatient clinics. Although there has been extensive research on the roles of companions in asymmetric interactions within medical settings, there is a paucity of conversation analytic studies that examine the active participation and contributions of companions on an equal footing in medical consultations. How companions on an equal footing participate and contribute in Chinese outpatient clinical consultations remains under-explored. By employing video recordings of three-party consultations in the Chinese orthopaedic outpatient clinic as the data and adopting conversation analysis as the method, this study investigated how companions participated in and contributed to the information-gathering activity and how their contributions were interactionally negotiated and managed by clinicians and adult patients over sequences of interaction. We showed that companions negotiated epistemic rights in reporting and repairing the information about medical problems in the patients' epistemic domain and displayed different levels of encroachment on patients' epistemic rights by endorsing patients' responses, repairing the information in patients' responses, and offering information directly to clinicians. Companions also exerted deontic authority and shaped the trajectory of the consultations by hindering or facilitating the progressivity of the interaction. We argued that companions' contributions to the information-gathering activity might reflect the family-centred model of the doctor-patient relationship in the Chinese orthopaedic outpatient clinic. Clinicians are suggested to open up opportunities for companions' participation and contributions while respecting patients' rights, especially when there is a collision of knowledge claims between patients and their companions.

Disorder or difference? How clinician-patient interaction and patient age shape the process and meaning of autism diagnosis.

This article follows Blaxter's foundational call for a sociology of diagnosis that addresses the dual aspects of diagnosis-as-category and diagnosis-as-process. Drawing on video recordings from an autism clinic, we show how the process of attaching the diagnosis to a child involves interactions between clinicians, parents and children, and that in the course of such interactions, a diagnostic category officially defined in terms of deficits can instead be formulated in terms of valuable social and cognitive differences. More specifically, we show that the child's age is crucial for how clinicians formulate the diagnosis: with younger children, clinicians treat autism exclusively as a deficit to be remedied, whereas with older children, clinicians may treat autism either as a deficit or as a social-cognitive difference. Further, because older children are often co-recipients of diagnostic news, we find that clinicians carefully manage the implications such news may have for their self/identity. Finally, we suggest that (1) the equation of a diagnostic category with dysfunction is achieved in interaction; (2) the meaning of a diagnosis may vary with characteristics of its recipients; and (3) that meaning can be worked up by clinicians and recipients in ways that centre difference rather than deficit.

Dealing with callers' racialised talk in suicide preventive helplines: Accomplishing (anti)racism in the context of unconditional support.

This article investigates how mental health counsellors on helplines in Sweden deal with racism from callers who self-categorise as non-racialised. Previous studies have identified racism as a problem in health care interactions, but there is limited knowledge about the features of racialised talk and how staff respond. In this study, we use conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis to examine racialised talk in 17 audiorecorded calls, a subset of 458 calls to suicide preventive helplines. The analysis shows that racialisation functions as a resource for callers to make sense of their mental health difficulties. This speaks to the complexity of responding to racism in a mental health setting, as counsellors must see to callers' needs, and calling out racialised talk may alienate callers. Call-takers manage this problem in three ways: (1) questioning racialised talk, (2) supporting the callers' stance in a way that makes it ambiguous if call-takers are coproducing racism or affiliating with callers' lives being difficult and (3) supporting callers' problems as mental health issues while resisting a potentially racist trajectory. The study offers direct insight into the workings of racism in health care and how practitioners can balance health care users' needs for support with an antiracist position.

A clinical assessment of three-dimensional-printed liver model navigation for thrice or more repeated hepatectomy based on a conversation analysis.

PURPOSES: We performed a conversation analysis of the speech conducted among the surgical team during three-dimensional (3D)-printed liver model navigation for thrice or more repeated hepatectomy (TMRH). METHODS: Seventeen patients underwent 3D-printed liver navigation surgery for TMRH. After transcription of the utterances recorded during surgery, the transcribed utterances were coded by the utterer, utterance object, utterance content, sensor, and surgical process during conversation. We then analyzed the utterances and clarified the association between the surgical process and conversation through the intraoperative reference of the 3D-printed liver. RESULTS: In total, 130 conversations including 1648 segments were recorded. Utterance coding showed that the operator/assistant, 3D-printed liver/real liver, fact check (F)/plan check (Pc), visual check/tactile check, and confirmation of planned resection or preservation target (T)/confirmation of planned or ongoing resection line (L) accounted for 791/857, 885/763, 1148/500, 1208/440, and 1304/344 segments, respectively. The utterance's proportions of assistants, F, F of T on 3D-printed liver, F of T on real liver, and Pc of L on 3D-printed liver were significantly higher during non-expert surgeries than during expert surgeries. Confirming the surgical process with both 3D-printed liver and real liver and performing planning using a 3D-printed liver facilitates the safe implementation of TMRH, regardless of the surgeon's experience. CONCLUSIONS: The present study, using a unique conversation analysis, provided the first evidence for the clinical value of 3D-printed liver for TMRH for anatomical guidance of non-expert surgeons.

A laughing matter? Managing hearing difficulties in real life everyday social interactions with adults with hearing loss.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the interactional management of hearing difficulties and hearing aids (HAs) in real-life, video-recorded social interactions with adults with hearing loss (HL) and their families/friends. DESIGN: 32 video-recordings in various social settings were analysed using Conversation Analysis. STUDY SAMPLE: 20 adults with HL and their families/friends. RESULTS: HL and/or HAs did not typically become explicit in conversation. When adults with HL' hearing difficulties did become explicit in the conversation, they were typically accompanied by laughter/humour. Sometimes the humour/laughter was initiated by the person with HL themselves (i.e. self-directed joking) but more frequently it was initiated by someone else within the conversation (i.e. a tease). CONCLUSIONS: The findings display the management of the "to tell or not to tell" dilemma in practice, and how humour was often used to lighten the tension when "telling" about HL and/or HAs. The findings also highlight that not all humour is equal: there are different outcomes for adults with HL depending on who initiated the humour/laughter within the context of the interaction. This study highlights stigma-in-action - how stigma related to HL and/or HAs is occasioned and managed within real-life social interactions.

The Role of Language in Remote Healthcare Triage: A Meta-Aggregative Review.

AIM(S): To provide an overview of evidence on the role of language in remote healthcare services prioritisation, from now on termed triage. This study synthesises literature, to better understand how language affects triage interactions, aiming to improve these processes. DESIGN: We conducted a meta-aggregative review. METHODS: A systematic search in Scopus from inception to September 2023 identified 437 studies on language in remote healthcare triage, of which 23 were included. Information was selected using both inductive and deductive coding, focusing on six linguistic features of interaction that have been described in the literature on studies using conversation analysis: turn-taking organisation, overall structure, sequence organisation, turn design, lexical choice, and epistemological and other forms of asymmetry. The process followed the RAMESES Publication Standards for Meta-narrative Reviews. RESULTS: Two main findings emerged. First, all six linguistic features are present in triage conversations, indicating that language involves more than just what is said. It also matters, for example, how and when a question is asked. Second, computerised decision support systems (CDSS) significantly affect conversation flow and dynamics. CONCLUSION: Language in triage involves more than literal speech and is heavily influenced by CDSS. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE: Our study suggests that quality assessments of triage conversations should consider not only what is said but cover all relevant aspects of language. The influence of computerised decision support systems (CDSS) on linguistic features highlights the need for systems to be adaptable, to improve conversation quality and better addressing caller needs rather than focusing on one-size-fits-all questions. IMPACT: This review highlights the complex role of language in triage conversations and its impact on interaction. It calls for a broader view of language in quality assessments, recognising that both call-takers and callers contribute to call quality. Insights from this review can help developers enhance question types, sequence, and delivery methods of computerised decision support systems. Finally, education for call-takers in healthcare sectors may be improved based on our findings. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

Using Conversation Analysis to explore assessments of decision-making capacity in a hospital setting.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare professionals (HCPs) have a responsibility to conduct assessments of decision-making capacity that comply with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). Current best-practice guidance, such as the Mental Capacity Code of Practice and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence decision-making and mental capacity guidance, does not stipulate how to accomplish this in practice, for example, what questions should be asked, how options and information should be provided. In addition, HCPs struggle to assess the capacity of individuals with communication difficulties. AIMS: This study was a service evaluation that aimed to objectively analyse, using Conversation Analysis (CA), how real-life capacity assessments were conducted in a hospital setting with patients with acquired brain injury (ABI)-related communication difficulties. A second aim was to establish the feasibility of using CA to advance knowledge of the conduct of capacity assessment. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Four naturally occurring capacity assessments were video-recorded. Recordings involved speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, neuropsychologists and patients with communication difficulties as a result of ABI. The methods and findings of CA were used to investigate the interactional behaviours of HCPs and patients during assessments of decision-making capacity. The analysis was informed by our knowledge of the MCA best practice guidance. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: An overall structure of capacity assessment that enacted some of the best-practice MCA guidance was identified in one recording, consisting of six phases: (i) opening, (ii) preparation, (iii) option-listing, (iv) test, (v) decision, and (vi) close. The preparation phase consisted of two sub-components: information gathering and information giving. Variation from this structure was observed across the dataset, notably in the way in which options were (or were not) presented. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: CA is a feasible empirical method for exploring the structure and conduct of capacity assessments. CA identifies and provides ways of describing interactional behaviours that align with and diverge from best-practice MCA guidance. Future CA studies including a wider range of health and social care professionals and patients have the potential to inform evidence based training for HCPs who conduct assessments of decision-making capacity. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is poorly implemented in practice. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) find it challenging to assess the decision-making capacity of individuals with communication difficulties, and people with communication difficulties are often excluded from or insufficiently supported during capacity assessment. Research is limited to self-report methods. Observational studies of capacity assessment are required. What this study adds This is the first study to use Conversation Analysis (CA) to explore how capacity assessments are conducted in a hospital setting by HCPs with people with communication difficulties as a result of acquired brain injury. One video-recorded capacity assessment was structured in six phases that aligned with best practice MCA guidance. However, other capacity assessments deviated from this structure. One phase, option listing, varied in practice and options were not always presented. What are the clinical implications of this work? CA revealed interactional behaviours that align with and diverge from best-practice MCA guidance. Future CA studies are warranted to inform training for health and social care professionals who conduct capacity assessments.

A conversation analysis of therapist repeats in open dialogue network meetings.

Writings on Open Dialogue approaches to working with families experiencing mental distress emphasize the importance of the therapist repeating the family's words back to them verbatim. Repeats are theorized to display the therapist's listening and to encourage elaboration without imposing the therapist's own interpretations or conclusions on the family. These recommendations have not been subjected to rigorous interactional investigation. In this study, we used conversation analysis to analyze 160 examples of therapists repeating the prior talk of the family from 14 h of video-recorded Open Dialogue sessions. We found that these repeats had similar functions to those previously described in conversation analysis research such as initiating repair, marking receipt, and requesting elaboration as well as examples of therapist repeats occurring in overlap with the talk of the client. Open Dialogue writings thus present an oversimplified account of how repeats are utilized in clinical Open Dialogue sessions. Consistent with dialogical writings, repeats can elicit elaboration with limited input from the therapist, however repeats reflect selectivity and function to direct and guide the conversation to some extent. So, while therapist authority can be mitigated by repeating clients' words, when a therapist chooses to employ a repeat actively shapes the direction of the interaction.

Childbirth as Fault Lines: Justifications in Physician-Patient Interactions About Postnatal Rehabilitation.

Research on justifications has shown their significance in advice-giving, decision-making and children disputes. However, the majority of studies gloss over practical functions of justifications in patient-physician interactions as they are often expected and pursued by patients and in turn, are adopted by physicians to support their stance and authority. This study, through conversation analysis (CA), aims to explore a) what are pragmatic functions of justifications in patient-physician interaction? b) how and when do physicians unfold their justifications for treatment recommendations? c) how do physicians deal with different responses based on their epistemic and deontic domains?. A total of 32 video-recordings between postpartum women and physicians are collected and studied. Four pragmatic functions of justifications drawn upon by physicians are explored: justifications as face-saving, reassurance, risk discussion and clarification-seeking. Despite physicians' attempts to justify their positions as less challenged by patients, this is not the entire picture as they demonstrate their desire to resolve patients' concerns and coordinate their viewpoints to achieve the best practice that facilitates patients' well-being.

The role of the body in SGD-mediated interactions.

Most research about augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) has focused on improving use of and access to speech generating devices (SGDs). However, many adults with significant physical and developmental disabilities express a preference for unaided, embodied forms of communication. This study used conversation analysis (CA) techniques to analyze the forms and functions of embodied communication that occurred during interactions between a young man who used unaided, embodied communication and an SGD to communicate with a familiar communication partner. Close analysis revealed that embodied resources were required for both unaided and aided forms of communication. Furthermore, both participants used their bodies to establish interactional spaces with different focal points during interaction, which placed different demands on the aided speaker. Unfortunately, when the SGD was the focal point, problematic demands were placed on the aided speaker, which in turn resulted in increased embodied effort on his part. The forms and functions of the body, differences in the participants' interactions when communication did and did not involve the SGD, and implications for research and practice are all reported and discussed.

Conversation Analysis Based Simulation (CABS): A method for improving communication skills training for healthcare practitioners.

BACKGROUND: Actors portraying simulated patients are widely used in communication skills training in healthcare, but debates persist over the authenticity of these interactions. However, healthcare professionals value simulation-based training because of the opportunity to think and react in real time, which alternatives cannot provide. OBJECTIVE: To describe a method for the use of simulation which maximises authenticity by grounding training in real, observed, patterns of patient communication. DESIGN: Naturally occurring care interactions were video recorded and analysed using conversation analysis (CA) to identify communication patterns. We focused on sites of recurring interactional trouble as areas for training, and identified more and less effective ways of dealing with these. We used the CA findings to train actors portraying simulated patients, based on the observed interactional patterns. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: Patients living with dementia and healthcare practitioners (HCPs) on two acute healthcare of the elderly wards in the English East Midlands. OUTCOME MEASURES: One month later HCPs reported using the skills learned in clinical practice. Masked-ratings of before and after simulated patient encounters confirmed these self-reports in relation to one key area of training. RESULTS: The Conversation Analysis Based Simulation (CABS) method used in this setting showed positive results across a range of quantitative and qualitative outcome measures. What is significant for the transferability of the method is that qualitative feedback from trainees highlighted the ability of the method to not only illuminate their existing effective practices, but to understand why these were effective and be able to articulate them to others. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: While the CABS method was piloted in the dementia care setting described here, it has potential applicability across healthcare settings where simulated consultations are used in communication skills training. Grounding simulated interaction in the observed communication patterns of real patients is an important means of maximising authenticity. PATIENT AND PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: The VideOing to Improve dementia Communication Education (VOICE) intervention which piloted the CABS method was developed by a multidisciplinary team, including three carers of people with dementia. People living with dementia were involved in the rating of the before and after video simulation assessments.

Managing understandings of palliative care as more than care immediately before death: Evidence from observational analysis of consultations.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that public, and some professional, understandings of palliative care are limited to care provided immediately before death, which contrasts palliative care's scope as care provided across a range of illness stages. OBJECTIVE: To examine how clinicians manage patients' understandings of palliative care during initial consultations. DESIGN: Initial palliative care consultations were video-recorded and analysed using conversation analytic methods. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Consultations were recorded in a specialist palliative care outpatient unit within an Australian public hospital. Participants included 20 newly referred patients and their families, and three palliative care clinicians. RESULTS: During initial consultations, it was observed that specialist palliative care clinicians frequently managed the possibility that patients may understand palliative care as limited to care provided immediately before death. Clinicians used recurrent practices that seemed designed to pre-empt and contradict patients' possible narrow understandings. When discussing the palliative care inpatient unit, clinicians recurrently explained inpatient care could include active treatment and referred to the possibility of being discharged. These practices contradict possible understandings that future admission to the inpatient unit would be solely for care immediately before death. DISCUSSION: The findings demonstrate that palliative care clinicians are aware of possible narrow understandings of their discipline among members of the public. The practices identified show how clinicians pre-emptively manage these understandings to patients newly referred to palliative care. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight scope for greater partnership with teams referring patients to palliative care, to assist patients in understanding the range of reasons for their referral. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: The observational method of conversation analysis provides direct insight into matters that are relevant for patients, as raised in their consultations with clinicians. This direct evidence enables analysis of their lived experience, as it occurs, and grounds analysis in observable details of participants' conduct, rather than interpretations of subjective experiences. The patients' contributions, therefore, were to allow observation into their initial palliative care consultations.

How a 'good parent' decides on childhood vaccination. Demonstrating independence and deliberation during Dutch healthcare visits.

Childhood vaccination consultations are considered an important phase in parents' decision-making process. To date, only a few empirical studies conducted in the United States have investigated real-life consultations. To address this gap, we recorded Dutch vaccination conversations between healthcare providers and parents during routine health consultations for their newborns. The data were analysed using Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology. We found that the topic of vaccination was often initiated with 'Have you already thought about vaccination?' (HYATAV), and that this formulation was consequential for parental identity work. Exploring the interactional trajectories engendered by this initiation format we show that: (1) interlocutors treat the question as consisting of two types of queries, (2) conversational trajectories differ according to which of the queries is attended to and that (3) parents work up a 'good parent' identity in response to HYATAV, by demonstrating that they think about their child's vaccination beforehand and make their decisions independently. Our findings shed new light on the interactional unfolding of parental vaccination decisions.

Claiming or abdicating medical authority: Treatment recommendation actions, doctor-patient relationship, and antibiotic overprescription in Chinese paediatrics.

Antibiotic overprescription in China has long been considered a problem on the supply side, linked to the financial incentives of physicians. Based on the conversation analysis of 187 video-recorded naturally occurring medical consultations in Chinese paediatric primary care settings, this study finds that the driving force behind the problem of antibiotic overprescription in China has changed. Physicians use a low-authority communication style to recommend treatment, displaying a low level of medical authority and a willingness to accommodate caregivers' preferences in antibiotic prescribing decisions. The problem is now attributed to physician-caregiver interaction, doctor-patient relationship and the antibiotic-saturated prescribing culture. Practice implications involve deepening the understanding of the evolving nature of the antibiotic overprescription problem in China, building trust between physicians and patients/caregivers in order to facilitate the physicians' role as the gatekeeper of antibiotics and providing training programmes to help physicians develop effective communication skills.

Talking About Things: A Patient Cue for Sensitive Healthcare Problems and Effective Physician Responses.

In routine healthcare consultations, patients often use prefaces containing the word "thing", including "the thing is", "there's this thing" or "one more thing". Although "thing" is an all-encompassing term that is used in myriad ways, in this article we show that thing-prefaces perform a specific job. This study uses Conversation Analysis to analyze 90 video-recorded primary care consultations with 14 primary care physicians in the United States. Patients' thing-prefaces mark the upcoming talk as a disclosure of sensitive information that may reflect negatively on the patient, physician or service (e.g., medication nonadherence, refill was not sent to pharmacy). Patients pursue explicit resolution of these problems (e.g., personalized recommendation, lab work, referral) despite these problems being downplayed and treated as delicate. Because patients may "talk around" these sensitive issues, thing-prefaces can be an important cue for physicians that patients are seeking resolution for a sensitive healthcare problem.

Improving the implementation of family-centred care in adult audiology appointments: a feasibility intervention study.

OBJECTIVE: There is mounting evidence for implementing family-centred care (FCC) in adult audiology services, however FCC is not typically observed in adult clinical practice. This study implemented an intervention to increase family member attendance and involvement within adult audiology appointments. DESIGN: The study involved a mixed method design over three key phases: Standard Care, Intervention I (increasing family member attendance), and Intervention II (increasing family member involvement). STUDY SAMPLE: Staff from four private audiology clinics within one organisation participated in the intervention. Data was collected from different clients in each phase (n = 27 Standard Care, n = 30 Intervention I, and n = 23 Intervention II). RESULTS: Family member attendance increased from 26% of appointments in Standard Care to 40% at Intervention I, and 48% at Intervention II. Family member involvement also showed improvement on some measures (video analysis) although talk time did not significantly increase. Significant improvements in client satisfaction with services were found (Net Promoter Score and Measure of Processes of Care). CONCLUSION: The implementation of FCC in audiology clinics needs to be an ongoing, whole-of-clinic approach, including staff in all roles. Increasing family member attendance at adult audiology appointments can lead to benefits to client satisfaction with services.

People with aphasia and their family members proposing joint future activities in everyday conversations: A conversation analytic study.

BACKGROUND: In everyday conversations, a person with aphasia (PWA) compensates for their language impairment by relying on multimodal and material resources, as well as on their conversation partners. However, some social actions people perform in authentic interaction, proposing a joint future activity, for example, ordinarily rely on a speaker producing a multi-word utterance. Thus, the language impairment connected to aphasia may impede the production of such proposals, consequently hindering the participation of PWAs in the planning of future activities. AIMS: To investigate (1) how people with post-stroke chronic aphasia construct proposals of joint future activities in everyday conversations compared with their familiar conversation partners (FCPs); and (2) how aphasia severity impacts on such proposals and their uptake. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Ten hours of video-recorded everyday conversations from seven persons with mild and severe aphasia of varying subtypes and their FCPs were explored using conversation analysis. We identified 59 instances where either party proposed a joint future activity and grouped such proposals according to their linguistic format and sequential position. Data are in Finnish. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: People with mild aphasia made about the same number of proposals as their FCPs and used similar linguistic formats to their FCPs when proposing joint future activities. This included comparable patterns associated with producing a time reference, which was routinely used when a proposal initiated a planning activity. Mild aphasia manifested itself as within-turn word searches that were typically self-repaired. In contrast, people with severe aphasia made considerably fewer proposals compared with their FCPs, the proposal formats being linguistically unidentifiable. This resulted in delayed acknowledgement of the PWAs' talk as a proposal. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Mild aphasia appears not to impede PWAs' ability to participate in the planning of joint future activities, whereas severe aphasia is a potential limitation. To address this possible participatory barrier, we discuss clinical implications for both therapist-led aphasia treatment and conversation partner training. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject PWAs use multimodal resources to compensate for their language impairment in everyday conversations. However, certain social actions, such as proposing a joint future activity, cannot ordinarily be accomplished without language. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The study demonstrates that proposing joint future activities is a common social action in everyday conversations between PWAs and their family members. People with mild aphasia used typical linguistic proposal formats, and aphasic word-finding problems did not prevent FCPs from understanding the talk as a proposal. People with severe aphasia constructed proposals infrequently using their remaining linguistic resources, a newspaper connecting the talk to the future and the support from FCPs. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? We suggest designing aphasia treatment with reference to the social action of proposing a joint future activity. Therapist-led treatment could model typical linguistic proposal formats, whereas communication partner training could incorporate FCP strategies that scaffold PWAs' opportunities to construct proposals of joint future activities. This would enhance aphasia treatment's ecological validity, promote its generalization and ultimately enable PWAs to participate in everyday planning activities.