Interpersonal perception in the context of doctor–patient relationships: A dyadic analysis of doctor–patient communication (original) (raw)
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Examining the perceptions of doctor-patient communication
Human Communication, 2007
This study explored physician-patient interaction by examining patients' perceptions of physician's communication skills in an effort to identify characteristics associated with a positive medical encounter. Patient satisfaction was examined in terms of its association with the patient's educational level, perception of the physician's intentions, and the patient's willingness to question the physician's credibility. The participants were four-hundred adults who responded to a random survey in north-central Alabama. Data were collected by telephone interviews using a Likert scale-type questionnaire. Results showed that 65% of the respondents believed most doctors make a good effort at communicating with their patients, but not all succeed. Additionally, results indicate that communication between patient and physician is less effective when the patient is of lower socioeconomic status (p > 0.05), as determined by education, income, or occupation. Perceptions of Doctor-Patient Communication 423 Examining the Perceptions of Doctor-Patient Communication Studying the communication transaction between doctors and patients is of great importance due to the numerous effects that effective communication may have on the healthcare of patients. Developing a relationship with one's physician is indispensable in the communication building process. Unfortunately, the doctor-patient relationship is very complex and as indicated, affected by numerous factors. The interaction often involves individuals of disparate educational and social positions, is usually nonvoluntary and concerns issues of high importance that typically involve a strong emotional component (Chaitchik, Kreitler et al.,1992). Although the use of sophisticated technology may be employed for medical diagnosis and treatment, inter-personal communication is the primary tool by which the physician and the patient exchange information, and the adequate and efficient exchange of information may even improve a patient's health "as quantifiably as many drugs" (Street, 1991; Travaline, Ruchinskas et al.,2005). In other words, effective communication between a patient and his or her doctor may improve that patient's condition just as much as the use of pharmacotherapy. Thus effective communication between a doctor and his or her patient is indispensable for positive medical encounters or outcomes and can be regarded an essential prerequisite for optimal medical care. For example, communication failures among physicians are a leading cause of medical errors (Frank, Lawless et al.,2005), while communication also plays a major role in a patients' efforts to cope with illness-related uncertainties (Hines 2001). The efficiency of the doctor-patient communication may also directly affect the medical encounter in numerous ways. How well a patient and his or her doctor correspond has an influence on the patients' behavior, well-being, adherence to treatment, recall and understanding of medical information, quality of life, level of anxiety, and outcome (
The process of interpersonal communication is paramount in the interaction between the healthcare provider and the patient, and in the relationship with the sick or in need of care. Studies over the last decade documented how communication processes predict better outcomes in physician-patient interactions, and key components that should be considered in close relationships where health problems somehow define relationships. Has been made. Good interpersonal relationships between patients and service providers are important features of quality of care, characterized by a balance of mutual respect, openness, and their respective roles in decision making. This review is a review of healthcare, especially physician and patient interpersonal communication skills.
Patient Education and Counseling, 2006
Objective: To explore the communicative behaviours as used by specialty physicians, and their patients' perception of the communicative act as well as their satisfaction with the encounter. Methods: Cross-sectional study involving 27 specialty physicians and 257 outpatients. Encounters were video-recorded and analysed through the GATHA-ESP scale. Patients rated the quality of the interaction and their satisfaction with it in a questionnaire. Results: Most specialist doctors use a ''managerial'' style where there is no exploration of their patients' emotions (22%), expectations (28%) or psychosocial aspects (10-20%). Less than one doctor out of every four ever gave the patient an opportunity to participate in any type of decision making at the surgery. Patients were more satisfied with those encounters they felt more patient-centred (F: 11.37; p < 0.001); higher scores on the GATHA-ESP characterised these visits. Conclusions: Specialty physicians show a limited range of communicative skills as they use a doctor-centred style that allows for little patient participation. Patients' perceptions of patient-centeredness are linked to satisfaction more than the analysis of doctors' behaviour at the consultation does. Practice implications: It seems important to foster training in communication skills in the different specialist vocational training programs. Studies on physician-patient communication should deal with the perceived and observed perspectives on this domain. #
Advances in Health Sciences Education, 2014
Good doctor-patient communication may lead to better compliance, higher patient satisfaction, and finally, better health. Although the social variance in how physicians and patients communicate is clearly demonstrated, little is known about what patients with different educational attainments actually prefer in doctor-patient communication. In this study we describe patients' perspective in doctor-patient communication according to their educational level, and to what extent these perspectives lean towards the expert opinion on doctor-patient communication. In a multi-center study (Belgium, The Netherlands, UK and Italy), focus group discussions were organised using videotaped medical consultations. A mixed methods approach was used to analyse the data. Firstly, a difference in perspective in communication style was found between the lower educated participants versus the middle and higher educated participants. Secondly, lower educated participants referred positively most to aspects related to the affective/emotional area of the medical consultation, followed by the task-oriented/problem-focused area. Middle and higher educated participants positively referred most to the task-oriented/problem-focused area. The competency of the physician was an important category of communication for all participants, independent of social background. The results indicate that the preferences of lower educated participants lean more towards the expert opinion in doctor-patient K. Aelbrecht (communication than the middle and higher educated participants. Patients' educational level seems to influence their perspective on communication style and should be taken into account by physicians. Further quantitative research is needed to confirm these results.
The Evaluation of Physicians' Communication Skills From Multiple Perspectives
Annals of family medicine, 2018
To examine how family physicians', patients', and trained clinical raters' assessments of physician-patient communication compare by analysis of individual appointments. Analysis of survey data from patients attending face-to-face appointments with 45 family physicians at 13 practices in England. Immediately post-appointment, patients and physicians independently completed a questionnaire including 7 items assessing communication quality. A sample of videotaped appointments was assessed by trained clinical raters, using the same 7 communication items. Patient, physician, and rater communication scores were compared using correlation coefficients. Included were 503 physician-patient pairs; of those, 55 appointments were also evaluated by trained clinical raters. Physicians scored themselves, on average, lower than patients (mean physician score 74.5; mean patient score 94.4); 63.4% (319) of patient-reported scores were the maximum of 100. The mean of rater scores from 55 ...
Journal of Medical Research and Health Sciences, 2019
Communication is the procedure of generation, transmission, or gathering of messages to oneself or another substance, for the most part by means of a commonly comprehended arrangement of signs. Communication skills are the tools that individuals use to evacuate boundaries and troubles to perform successful correspondence (are learnable, trainable, versatile simply like some other expertise). The objective was to assess the effectiveness of the communication skills system among consultants, physicians, registrars and medical officers with their patients in different units of medicine and surgery. Methods: It was a descriptive-analytical study in OFTH August 2010. (241) participants by simple random sampling. All patients attend the OFTH for their appointment and agreed to be included in this study. Whereas the emergent and urgent were excluded. Data were collected using small groups discussion and pre-tested questionnaires. Results: Many doctors know some information about Doctor-Patient Communication Skills but, they didn't perform it because of, the high frequency of patients in referral clinics. Doctors spent 6 to 10 minutes with 179 patients (74.3%), 11to 15 minutes with 46 patients (19.1%), 1 to 5 minutes with 12 patients (5%), 16 to 20 minutes with 3 patients (1.2%) and more than 26 minutes with one patient (O.4%). Patients' satisfaction; 205 patients are satisfied represent (85.1%), 36 patients aren't satisfied represent (14.9%). Those who aren't satisfied; 25 patients (69%) because of a short duration of the medical interview, 8 patients (22%) because doctors didn't mention the adverse effects of the drugs and 3 patients (9%) because doctors didn't mention the possible complications of the operation. Conclusion: Doctor-patient communication skills were done by medical officers, registrars, physicians, and consultants. They took a short time 6-10 minutes for the medical interview (74.3%), they didn't share information with their colleagues in the same unit by (46.5%) in 112 patients and didn't involve other health care professionals in patients' care by (62.7%) for 151 patients. Despite that, the patients' satisfaction was (85.1%
The European Journal of Public Health, 2012
Background: The project GULiVer explores how lay people in Belgium (Gent), the Netherlands (Utrecht), the UK (Liverpool) and Italy (Verona) evaluate physicians' communicative skills. The aims are to present the study design and to assess the quality of collected data. Methods: In each centre one out of two sets of four videotaped consultations involving medical students with varying communication skills were shown to eight lay panels of six to nine participants each (n=259). The selection of lay participants was stratified by gender and age in order to obtain a heterogeneous sample. Background characteristics included socio-demographics, participants' general physical (COOP-WONCA) and mental health (GHQ), communication preferences (QUOTE-com) and trust in doctors (TMP). Participants were asked to give quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the student doctors' performance in a mixed-methods design. Quality assessment of the collected data and protocol adherence of the four centres was carried out by Generalized Linear Model (GLM). Results: The overall sample comprised 259 participants. Participants were equally distributed among the centres and balanced in terms of age, gender and OSCE scenario, confirming the quality of collected data.
Relationship between communication skills training and doctors' perceptions of patient
2011
Objectives: The study's primary aim was to investigate whether participants who have received more communication skills training see patients as less similar to one another. The study's secondary aim was to explore differences in perceived patient similarity between male and female doctors, hospital doctors and general practitioners and medical students and doctors. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design. Thirtysix hospital consultants, 35 general practitioners and 56 clinical medical students in the United Kingdom were recruited via a snowballing technique and medical student societies. They completed a questionnaire in which they indicated hours and form of communication skills training received and rated perceptions of the two last patients they had seen on a 3-item semantic differential scale. Data collection took place via the post, e-mail or the web. Pear-son Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to analyse the ratings. Results: Participants with greater communication skills training (≥ 30 hours) perceived patients as less similar to each other (M = 3.95, SD = 2.35) than participants with medium (between 10 and 30 hours, M = 3.14, SD = 2.62) and smaller communication skills training (≤10 hours, M = 2.69, SD = 2.70), Kruskal-Wallis test (2, 119) = 6.78, p = .03. There was no difference in perceived patient similarity according to the doctor's gender and place of work. Conclusions: Communication skills training appears to decrease perceived similarity of patients but more research is needed to establish causality. Implications for patient satisfaction and doctors' respect for patients are discussed.