Patients’ preferences in interactions with healthcare professionals

• Type: Poster in an International Conference
• Date: 2011

Authors

Irene Carvalho (Author) FMUP; Susana Almeida (Author) FMUP; A Teles (Author) FMUP; Raquel Ribeiro- Silva (Author) FMUP; M Figueiredo- Braga (Author) FMUP; Vanessa G. Pais (Author) FMUP; Ivone Castro Vale (Author) FMUP

Conference International

International Conference on Communication in Healthcare AACH – American Academy on Communication in Healthcare.

Chicago, Illinois, USA , 16 a 19 de Outubro de 2011

Scientific classification

FOS: Medical and Health sciences > Other medical sciences

Other information

Abstract (EN): This study examines patients’ communication preferences and the correspondence between these preferences and communication skills taught in programs for healthcare professionals. While communication has been shown to be relevant to clinical practice, and programs are created to improve communication between healthcare providers and their patients, such taught communication skills are effective only if they are meaningful to patients. Recent research indicates that this is not always the case: while some studies report that real patient satisfaction increased after programs teaching communication skills, others report no improvement in real patient satisfaction with clinical interviews, or still, improvements in patient satisfaction without correspondence with scores in checklists of observed communication skills. Because patients are the target audience to whom the positive outcomes of programs teaching communication skills are intended, it is important that the academic materials included in the latter translate into the real-life contexts of the former. This study inspects the general aspects patients value in clinical interactions through qualitative, semi-structured interviews conducted with a group of real and simulated patients. Additionally, in order to examine how these preferences relate with the skills taught in a program, patients are interviewed after each clinical encounter, which is also evaluated with the SEGUE framework by external observers (faculty members). All interviews take place before and after the communication skills program and are then contentanalyzed. Results indicate: (a) the themes in communication which enhance and diminish the experience of the clinical encounter from the patient’s point of view, (b) the correspondence of such themes with external observers’ assessments, (c) commonalities and differences between patients, namely between real and simulated patients, and (d) changes in patients’ preferences before and after the program.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific