Editing Impression management (section)

==== Team-working in hospital wards   ====
Impression management theory can also be used in health communication. It can be used to explore how professionals 'present' themselves when interacting on hospital wards and also how they employ front stage and backstage settings in their collaborative work.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last1=Lewin|first1=Simon|last2=Reeves|first2=Scott|date=2011-05-01|title=Enacting 'team' and 'teamwork': using Goffman's theory of impression management to illuminate interprofessional practice on hospital wards|journal=Social Science & Medicine|volume=72|issue=10|pages=1595–1602|doi=10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.037|issn=1873-5347|pmid=21549467}}</ref>

In the hospital wards, Goffman's front stage and backstage performances are divided into 'planned' and 'ad hoc' rather than 'official' and 'unofficial' interactions.<ref name=":4" />

* ''Planned front stage'' is the structured collaborative activities such as ward rounds and care conferences which took place in the presence of patients and/or carers.
* ''Ad hoc front stage'' is the unstructured or unplanned interprofessional interactions that took place in front of patients/carers or directly involved patients/carers.
* ''Planned backstage'' is the structured multidisciplinary team meeting (MDT) in which professionals gathered in a private area of the ward, in the absence of patients, to discuss management plans for patients under their care.
* ''Ad hoc backstage'' is the use of corridors and other ward spaces for quick conversations between professionals in the absence of patients/carers.
* Offstage is the social activities between and among professional groups/individuals outside of the hospital context.<ref name=":4" />

Results show that interprofessional interactions in this setting are often based less on planned front stage activities than on ad hoc backstage activities. While the former may, at times, help create and maintain an appearance of collaborative interprofessional 'teamwork', conveying a sense of professional togetherness in front of patients and their families, they often serve little functional practice. These findings have implications for designing ways to improve interprofessional practice on acute hospital wards where there is no clearly defined interprofessional team, but rather a loose configuration of professionals working together in a collaborative manner around a particular patient. In such settings, interventions that aim to improve both ad hoc as well as planned forms of communication may be more successful than those intended to only improve planned communication.<ref name=":4" />