Kelsi Dew
Biographic Data
| ID | 168386 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kelsi Dew |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kelsi |
| FAMILY NAME | Dew |
| SIGNATURE | DEW K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Victoria University of Wellington |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3159-0413 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 248 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 49 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Cancer journeys and health practitioners as gatekeepers, brokers, and boundary enforcers
Cancer survival is increasingly prevalent, and the longevity of survivors enable them to provide insights into the experiences of living with cancer. The objective of this article is to consider the roles that health practitioners play that can facilitate or provide hindrances to investigations and cancer treatment following a diagnosis of cancer. From 2020 to 2022, 81 interviews were conducted with Māori and non-Māori throughout Aotearoa New Zea…
Time for a New Norm: Experiences of ‘Being Informed’ and ‘Having Choice’ for Prenatal Screening for Chromosomal Conditions: A Qualitative Study
BACKGROUND: Participating in prenatal screening for chromosomal conditions is premised on an informed choice to accept or decline. AIM: The aims of this paper are to describe people's experiences of informed choice and how these relate to the experience of prenatal screening. METHOD: Thirty-eight people were recruited and their experiences were explored through narrative enquiry, following an iterative and in-depth reflexive analysis. FINDINGS: I…
Accessing diagnosis and treatment: The experience of cancer as wrangling with the system
Long term cancer survival is increasingly prevalent, and the consequences are of sociological and clinical interest. In this paper we deploy the concept of wrangling to emphasise the everyday tussle of survivorship and processes of navigating pathways through what can be an unwelcoming environment. From 2020 to 2022 81 interviews were conducted with people, Māori and non-Māori, throughout Aotearoa New Zealand identified as exceptional cancer surv…
Is there a right time to die? How patients, families and assisted dying providers decide on and anticipate a date with death
Research has explored why people seek assisted dying (AD), families' bereavement, and AD providers' experiences, yet few studies have investigated decision-making of the time and date for AD. This article elucidates how cancer patients, families and AD providers decide on and experience living with a date and time for AD in New Zealand. We longitudinally interviewed 23 people. Using thematic analysis, we identified four decision-making phases: de…
Disruption, discontinuity and a licence to live: Responding to cancer diagnoses
Although a diagnosis of a life-limiting cancer is likely to evoke emotions, such as fear, panic and anxiety, for some people it can also provide an opportunity to live life differently. This article is based on research undertaken in Aotearoa New Zealand on the topic of exceptional cancer trajectories. Eighty-one participants who had been identified as living with a cancer diagnosis longer than clinically expected were interviewed, along with 25 …
Moving on in uncertain times: A goodbye
Building Community in Virtual Space: A Community Collaborative Sustains Its Exploration of Environmental Justice and Migration Issues in the Midst of Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had disproportionate impacts on communities that already bear disparate burdens of environmental and climate injustice. Migrant communities and those that have been historically marginalized are especially vulnerable. Building and maintaining relationships that serve as community support is challenged by the distance mandated by the virus. In this article, research partners from neighborhood and academic communities expl…
Routes into the homeopathic profession: Witnessing, gender and subaltern therapeutics
Homeopathy, along with many other alternative therapies, has come under severe attack from apologists for orthodox medicine. Given the cultural authority of medicine, what then provides the impetus for people to take up homeopathy as a clinical practice? This article addresses this question in the context of homeopathic practice in New Zealand. Five focus groups were conducted with 22 homeopaths in five cities. The study found that it was common …
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Containing and Expanding Therapeutic Possibilities
Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a sociological investigation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in contemporary society, and an exploration of the forces throughout the globe, across different institutions, and within different therapeutic spaces, that constrain or foster alternative medicine. Drawing on 30 years of research, the book identifies the trends in the use of CAM and explores the scientific, political and social …
Uncovering social structures and informational prejudices to reduce inequity in delivery and uptake of new molecular technologies
Advances in molecular technologies have the potential to help remedy health inequities through earlier detection and prevention; if, however, their delivery and uptake (and therefore any benefits associated with such testing) are not more carefully considered, there is a very real risk that existing inequities in access and use will be further exacerbated. We argue this risk relates to the way that information and knowledge about the technology i…
Vaccines, polarising divides and the role of public health
In 1962, Alexander Langmuir and his colleagues at the epidemiology branch of the Communicable Disease Center of the United States Public Health Service argued that measles should be eradicated, not
Can the subaltern heal? Medical marijuana in Aotearoa New Zealand
In this article the concepts of statist medicine and subaltern therapeutics are used to provide insight into the debates over the therapeutic use of marijuana in cases of serious or terminal illness. In 2015 medical marijuana gained public attention in Aotearoa New Zealand as cases of people facing life-threatening conditions who wished to use marijuana for therapeutic purposes were given voice in the popular media. In Aotearoa New Zealand mariju…
Medicalization
Medicalization describes a process in which medicine increasingly dominates our lives. A number of strategies facilitate medicalization, including the designation of more conditions as medical problems, the development of increasingly sophisticated screening procedures, diagnostic inflation, shifting diagnostic thresholds, and the developments of proto‐illnesses and personalized medicine. Increasing technological capacities from genetic and commu…
Ascertaining patients' understandings of their condition: A Conversation Analysis of Contradictory Norms in Cancer Specialist Consultations
Patient-centred care requires patients to be active participants in decision-making in consultations. Decision-making participation requires patients to understand their condition and to be able to convey their health literacy to medical specialists they encounter. Based on conversation analysis of 18 audio-recorded consultations between cancer patients and a range of cancer care specialists, this article analyses the ways cancer specialists atte…
Cancer care decision-making and treatment consent: An observational study of patients' and clinicians' rights
This study identified ways in which patients and medical specialists negotiated decisions about cancer treatment by observing decision-making discussion in situ. Audio-recordings of cancer care consultations with 18 patients, their support people, and their medical specialists, including medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgeons were collected in different regions of New Zealand. Patients were followed up with interviews and special…
Public engagement and the role of the media in post-marketing drug safety: The case of Eltroxin® (levothyroxine) in New Zealand
The potential for harms from adverse drug reactions (ADR) constitutes a critical patient safety and public health challenge, especially with increased medication usage as populations age. The research reported here explores explanations for a sudden increase in ADR reporting in New Zealand after a new formulation of a medication to treat hypothyroidism, Eltroxin® (levothyroxine), was phased in. The formulation was adjudged to be bioequivalent to …
Pharmaceuticalisation in the city
Cityscapes comprise intense repositories for socio-economic interactions, including those surrounding medicinal products. This raises issues of pharmaceuticalisation, involving the construction of a range of human conditions as targets for pharmaceutical interventions. Employing the metaphoric figure of the flâneur, we traverse the New Zealand cityscape, interrogating the mediation and emplacement of various medicinal products within thoroughfare…
Dying: A Social Perspective on the End of Life
This is a fascinating book exploring dying from cancer in a situation of futility, drawing on British and Australian collected data. It draws lightly but perceptively on data that was collected ove
Purifying and hybridising categories in healthcare decision-making: The Clinic, the Home and the Multidisciplinary Team Meeting
This article explores processes of legitimising health knowledge in three different spaces: the clinic, the home and the multidisciplinary meeting. It considers the ways in which categorisation work, health understandings and therapeutic actions are intertwined. The analysis draws on ethnomethodology and actor-network theory to suggest that in the clinic consultation room, a number of interactional elements in talk about side effects and talk abo…
Patient resistance as a resource: Candidate Obstacles in Diabetes Consultations
This study uses conversation analysis to explore 'candidate obstacles', a practice observed in sequences of patient resistance to lifestyle advice within health professional consultations. This article presents illustrative analyses of selected data excerpts drawn from audio-visual recordings of 116 tracked consultations between health professionals and 34 patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus in New Zealand. The analysis shows t…
Cancer Care Decision Making in Multidisciplinary Meetings
Little research has been undertaken on the actual decision-making processes in cancer care multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs). This article was based on a qualitative observational study of two regional cancer treatment centers in New Zealand. We audiorecorded 10 meetings in which 106 patient cases were discussed. Members of the meetings categorized cases in varying ways, drew on a range of sources of authority, expressed different value positions…
Dissonant roles: The experience of Māori in cancer care
Moral discourses and pharmaceuticalised governance in households
Structural Functionalism
Structural functionalism is a sociological approach that dominated in the middle part of the twentieth century, and is particularly associated with the work of Talcott Parsons. Its foundations can be found in the earlier work of sociologists and anthropologists, with Émile Durkheim being a significant theorist in this regard. A basic premise of structural functionalism is that society needs a certain level of social cohesion, solidarity, or integ…
Home as a hybrid centre of medication practice
This article presents research that explores how medications are understood and used by people in everyday life. An intensive process of data collection from 55 households was used in this research, which included photo-elicitation and diary-elicitation interviews. It is argued that households are at the very centre of complex networks of therapeutic advice and practice and can usefully be seen as hybrid centres of medication practice, where a pl…
When does neighbourhood matter? Multilevel relationships between neighbourhood social fragmentation and mental health
Patchwork diagnoses: The production of coherence, uncertainty, and manageable bodies
Choosing' to work when sick: Workplace Presenteeism
Moral discourses and pharmaceuticalised governance in households
Home as a hybrid centre of medication practice
This article presents research that explores how medications are understood and used by people in everyday life. An intensive process of data collection from 55 households was used in this research, which included photo-elicitation and diary-elicitation interviews. It is argued that households are at the very centre of complex networks of therapeutic advice and practice and can usefully be seen as hybrid centres of medication practice, where a pl…
Emplacement and everyday use of medications in domestic dwellings
The debate about the funding of Herceptin: A case study of 'countervailing powers
The Heart of the Matter: Using Poetry as a Method of Ethnographic Inquiry to Represent and Present Experiences of the Informally Housed in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In the ongoing discourses around housing and health, the voices of those on the margins are largely absent. This article describes the use of poetry to capture "realities" of marginal housing in Aotearoa/New Zealand from the perspectives of 40 people living in informal dwellings such as sheds, vans, buses, garages, tents, and caravans. The poems combine participants' words with descriptions of their living situations and complement thematic analy…
Deviant insiders: Medical acupuncturists in New Zealand
Patient resistance as a resource: Candidate Obstacles in Diabetes Consultations
This study uses conversation analysis to explore 'candidate obstacles', a practice observed in sequences of patient resistance to lifestyle advice within health professional consultations. This article presents illustrative analyses of selected data excerpts drawn from audio-visual recordings of 116 tracked consultations between health professionals and 34 patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus in New Zealand. The analysis shows t…
This glorious twilight zone of uncertainty: Mental health consultations in general practice in New Zealand
It puts things out of your control: Fear of Consequences as a Barrier to Patient Disclosure of Mental Health Issues to General Practitioners
Research indicates that there is a high level of trust in health professionals but also a high level of non-disclosure of mental health issues to general practitioners (GPs). This paper explores the issue of patients' willingness to disclose mental health problems to GPs through interviews with 33 patients from the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand. Patients' willingness to disclose related to a range of factors but this paper focuses…
Survival disparities in Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders with colon cancer: The role of patient comorbidity, treatment and health service factors
BACKGROUND: Ethnic disparities in cancer survival have been documented in many populations and cancer types. The causes of these inequalities are not well understood but may include disease and patient characteristics, treatment differences and health service factors. Survival was compared in a cohort of Maori (Indigenous) and non-Maori New Zealanders with colon cancer, and the contribution of demographics, disease characteristics, patient comorb…
Public health and the cult of humanity: A neglected Durkheimian concept
Public health researchers have used a number of concepts derived from the work of Durkheim, such as anomie and social capital. One concept that has not been deployed in public health discourses is that of the cult of humanity - Durkheim's religion in a society organised around organic solidarity. This paper discusses Durkheim's views on religion and science, and the cult of humanity. The cult of humanity is characterised as having humanity at the…
Apostasy to orthodoxy: Debates before a Commission of Inquiry into chiropractic
This paper examines the arguments presented at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into chiropractic, which took place in New Zealand in 1978. Drawing on the work of Potter, it suggests that the protagonists in the debate, the medical profession and its allies on one side and the chiropractic profession on the other, developed rhetorical strategies to counter competing versions of the world. An unusual feature of this debate was that it took place be…
Epidemics, Panic and Power: Representations of Measles and Measles Vaccines
In anglophone countries, there have been increasing efforts to vaccinate the total population. A number of strategies have been employed in order to achieve this goal, including compulsory vaccination before children can attend school (USA); financial incentives to general practitioners and other vaccinators to achieve vaccination targets (UK); and, in New Zealand, a system known as mandatory choice. The New Zealand system involves education cent…
Dissonant roles: The experience of Māori in cancer care
The (non) use of prioritisation protocols by surgeons
Priority setting and rationing is a dominant feature of contemporary health policy. In New Zealand, clinical priority assessment criteria (CPAC) tools have been developed to make access to elective surgery more equitable and efficient. Research was undertaken to identify how surgeons used these tools in the consultation. Forty-seven consultations with 15 different surgeons have to date been video- and audio-recorded. There were no instances where…
The moral regulation of the workplace: Presenteeism and Public Health
This paper draws on Durkheimian concepts of moral forces, particularly anomie and fatalism, and the forced division of labour, to argue that the current institutional arrangements to protect and compensate workers in hazardous workplaces are insufficient. This argument is illustrated with interview data from workers at a meatworks in New Zealand which examined workers' responses to illness and injury in the workplace. It is suggested that an imba…
Modes of Practice and Models of Science in Medicine
The medical profession in many industrialized nations has increasingly been subjected to accountability measures, most notably through the development of quality assurance programmes for practitioners. In New Zealand this development has been enshrined in law under the Medical Practitioners Act 1995. This article looks at some of the concerns raised by these developments, particularly focusing on the ways this might affect practitioners using alt…
Limits on the Utilization of Alternative Therapies by Doctors in New Zealand: A Problem of Boundary Maintenance
This paper uses two case studies to examine the scope for medical practitioners to utilize alternative forms of diagnosis and treatment. The first is a specific study of a medical practitioner who was deemed to have transgressed the boundaries of orthodox medicine. The second is a general case study which examines the possible effects of a new medical practitioners bill and the New Zealand health reforms. It is suggested that when the medical pro…
Cancer care decision-making and treatment consent: An observational study of patients' and clinicians' rights
This study identified ways in which patients and medical specialists negotiated decisions about cancer treatment by observing decision-making discussion in situ. Audio-recordings of cancer care consultations with 18 patients, their support people, and their medical specialists, including medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgeons were collected in different regions of New Zealand. Patients were followed up with interviews and special…
An exploratory study of young carers and their families in New Zealand
The 2008 New Zealand Carers’ Strategy recognises the role that “young carers” play in supporting family members who are ill or disabled, but we know little about this group of family carers in New Zealand. In this study, utilising grounded theory methods, interviews were undertaken with 14 young carers and nine other members of nine families to explore their experiences of young caring. Young caring occurs in the context of family relationships a…
National identity and controversy: New Zealand's clean green image and pentachlorophenol
Is there a right time to die? How patients, families and assisted dying providers decide on and anticipate a date with death
Research has explored why people seek assisted dying (AD), families' bereavement, and AD providers' experiences, yet few studies have investigated decision-making of the time and date for AD. This article elucidates how cancer patients, families and AD providers decide on and experience living with a date and time for AD in New Zealand. We longitudinally interviewed 23 people. Using thematic analysis, we identified four decision-making phases: de…
Limits on the Utilization of Alternative Therapies by Doctors in New Zealand: A Problem of Boundary Maintenance
This paper uses two case studies to examine the scope for medical practitioners to utilize alternative forms of diagnosis and treatment. The first is a specific study of a medical practitioner who was deemed to have transgressed the boundaries of orthodox medicine. The second is a general case study which examines the possible effects of a new medical practitioners bill and the New Zealand health reforms. It is suggested that when the medical pro…
National identity and controversy: New Zealand's clean green image and pentachlorophenol
Epidemics, Panic and Power: Representations of Measles and Measles Vaccines
In anglophone countries, there have been increasing efforts to vaccinate the total population. A number of strategies have been employed in order to achieve this goal, including compulsory vaccination before children can attend school (USA); financial incentives to general practitioners and other vaccinators to achieve vaccination targets (UK); and, in New Zealand, a system known as mandatory choice. The New Zealand system involves education cent…
Deviant insiders: Medical acupuncturists in New Zealand
Apostasy to orthodoxy: Debates before a Commission of Inquiry into chiropractic
This paper examines the arguments presented at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into chiropractic, which took place in New Zealand in 1978. Drawing on the work of Potter, it suggests that the protagonists in the debate, the medical profession and its allies on one side and the chiropractic profession on the other, developed rhetorical strategies to counter competing versions of the world. An unusual feature of this debate was that it took place be…
Modes of Practice and Models of Science in Medicine
The medical profession in many industrialized nations has increasingly been subjected to accountability measures, most notably through the development of quality assurance programmes for practitioners. In New Zealand this development has been enshrined in law under the Medical Practitioners Act 1995. This article looks at some of the concerns raised by these developments, particularly focusing on the ways this might affect practitioners using alt…
Choosing' to work when sick: Workplace Presenteeism
This glorious twilight zone of uncertainty: Mental health consultations in general practice in New Zealand
Smoking in film in New Zealand: Measuring risk exposure
Smoking in film warrants concern from public health advocates. In New Zealand, pre-film anti-smoking advertising appears to be the most promising immediate policy response
It puts things out of your control: Fear of Consequences as a Barrier to Patient Disclosure of Mental Health Issues to General Practitioners
Research indicates that there is a high level of trust in health professionals but also a high level of non-disclosure of mental health issues to general practitioners (GPs). This paper explores the issue of patients' willingness to disclose mental health problems to GPs through interviews with 33 patients from the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand. Patients' willingness to disclose related to a range of factors but this paper focuses…
Public health and the cult of humanity: A neglected Durkheimian concept
Public health researchers have used a number of concepts derived from the work of Durkheim, such as anomie and social capital. One concept that has not been deployed in public health discourses is that of the cult of humanity - Durkheim's religion in a society organised around organic solidarity. This paper discusses Durkheim's views on religion and science, and the cult of humanity. The cult of humanity is characterised as having humanity at the…
You just got to eat healthy: The topic of CAM in the general practice consultation
New Zealand research suggests that CAM use by GPs has decreased, while referral to CAM practitioners by GPs has increased, and that patients often do not tell their health practitioners when they are using CAM. The New Zealand Medical Council has developed guidelines for GPs who use CAM. However, there is no research in New Zealand that looks at how patients and GPs respond to CAM issues in the consultation. This paper uses data collected for two…
An exploratory study of young carers and their families in New Zealand
The 2008 New Zealand Carers’ Strategy recognises the role that “young carers” play in supporting family members who are ill or disabled, but we know little about this group of family carers in New Zealand. In this study, utilising grounded theory methods, interviews were undertaken with 14 young carers and nine other members of nine families to explore their experiences of young caring. Young caring occurs in the context of family relationships a…
The moral regulation of the workplace: Presenteeism and Public Health
This paper draws on Durkheimian concepts of moral forces, particularly anomie and fatalism, and the forced division of labour, to argue that the current institutional arrangements to protect and compensate workers in hazardous workplaces are insufficient. This argument is illustrated with interview data from workers at a meatworks in New Zealand which examined workers' responses to illness and injury in the workplace. It is suggested that an imba…
Emplacement and everyday use of medications in domestic dwellings
Change and Adaptation in Families with Young Carers
Using grounded theory methodology, members of nine families with 'young carers' were interviewed to explore their experiences of caring. A dynamic theory of change and adaptation emerged in relation to changes in who cares within families, in external support and in the attitudes of young carers towards caring. Adaptations included becoming used to the way life is, knowing how to care, balancing and trading off, rewarding care, and anticipating f…
Survival disparities in Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders with colon cancer: The role of patient comorbidity, treatment and health service factors
BACKGROUND: Ethnic disparities in cancer survival have been documented in many populations and cancer types. The causes of these inequalities are not well understood but may include disease and patient characteristics, treatment differences and health service factors. Survival was compared in a cohort of Maori (Indigenous) and non-Maori New Zealanders with colon cancer, and the contribution of demographics, disease characteristics, patient comorb…
The (non) use of prioritisation protocols by surgeons
Priority setting and rationing is a dominant feature of contemporary health policy. In New Zealand, clinical priority assessment criteria (CPAC) tools have been developed to make access to elective surgery more equitable and efficient. Research was undertaken to identify how surgeons used these tools in the consultation. Forty-seven consultations with 15 different surgeons have to date been video- and audio-recorded. There were no instances where…
The Eltroxin controversy: Risk and how actors construct their world
In 2007, a new formulation of Eltroxin, a medicine used to treat hypothyroidism, was introduced into New Zealand. By the end of September 2008, there were just over 800 reports linking the new formulation to a range of adverse reactions: joint and muscle pain, weight gain and depression, conjunctivitis, skin rash, and visual disturbances. In response to the prevalence of reports of adverse reactions, an alternative medication, Goldshield, was app…
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and participation in Aotearoa New Zealand
The involvement of persons with disabilities in formal decision-making processes is thought to have a range of benefits. However, research suggests that participatory processes may fail to match normative ideals. This study examines the participation of persons with disabilities in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, from the perspective of key informants in the New Zealand disability secto…
Patchwork diagnoses: The production of coherence, uncertainty, and manageable bodies
When does neighbourhood matter? Multilevel relationships between neighbourhood social fragmentation and mental health
The Heart of the Matter: Using Poetry as a Method of Ethnographic Inquiry to Represent and Present Experiences of the Informally Housed in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In the ongoing discourses around housing and health, the voices of those on the margins are largely absent. This article describes the use of poetry to capture "realities" of marginal housing in Aotearoa/New Zealand from the perspectives of 40 people living in informal dwellings such as sheds, vans, buses, garages, tents, and caravans. The poems combine participants' words with descriptions of their living situations and complement thematic analy…
The debate about the funding of Herceptin: A case study of 'countervailing powers
Structural Functionalism
Structural functionalism is a sociological approach that dominated in the middle part of the twentieth century, and is particularly associated with the work of Talcott Parsons. Its foundations can be found in the earlier work of sociologists and anthropologists, with Émile Durkheim being a significant theorist in this regard. A basic premise of structural functionalism is that society needs a certain level of social cohesion, solidarity, or integ…
Medicine (34 works) · Political science (32 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Psychology (28 works) · Law (18 works) · Nursing (17 works) · Public relations (17 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Health care (11 works)