Speakers » R. Tyler Spradley

R. Tyler Spradley, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Stephen F. Austin State University and multi-recipient of the endowed Jim Towns Mentoring Professorship. His research and teaching focus on crisis and risk communication, high reliability organizing practices, teamwork, and sociomateriality. His work is in the International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication, The Intima, the Journal of Human Services, and Sage Research Methods Cases.

Nursing education simulations expose students to in-care isolation of patients that pose a risk to their own health and the health of other patients. Simulating medical isolation with nursing students revealed four distinct communication patterns that enabled and constrained Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI) Prevention: 1) social support (peer-peer, faculty-student, nurse-patient), 2) patient education, 3) humor, and 4) storytelling.