Patient practitioner interpersonal skills Flashcards
What are interpersonal skills
-Interpersonal skills refer to both verbal and non-verbal communication skills that enable effective communication of a health message.
Why is it important for a health message to be properly communicated
When it is properly communicated it is more likely to be consumed by a patient
What are the two types of patient practitioner interpersonal skills
Non-verbal communication
Verbal communication
Explain Non-verbal communication
-This refers to non-verbal cues at the doctors surgery , e.g the doctors clothes , which affect the consumption of a health message.
Explain verbal communication
-This is when the doctor uses words to communicate the health message. When words are used to communicate the health message it has to be;
-Simple and easy to understand
-summarized
-avoid medical jargon
-say important information first
What is the aim in the study by Mckinstry and Wang - non verbal communication
1) To investigate whether doctors dressing affects patients confidence and trust in doctors ability and levels of satisfaction in the services offered
2) To investigate demographic differences in the beliefs of patients. Demographic variables investigated were age , sex and social class.
What is the sample in the study by Mckinstry and Wang - non verbal communication
-475 patients attending 30 doctor clinics across 5 general hospitals in Scotland.
-Participants were shown 8 photographs
How many photographs were there of the male doctor
-5 of the photographs were of a male doctor dressed differently
Describe the photographs of the male doctor
Picture A ; White coat over formal suit
Picture B ; formal suit
Picture C; tweed javket and informal skirt and tie
Picture D ; Cardigan , sport shirt and casual trousers/slacks
Picture E ; Jeans and a T-shirt
Describe the photographs of the female doctor
Picture F ; white coat , over skarlet jumper
Picture G ; Skirt , blouse and woolen jumper
Picture H ; Pink trousers , jumper and gold earrings
How many photographs were there of the female doctor
-3 of the photographs were of a female doctor dressed differently
What is the Procedure in the study by Mckinstry and Wang - non verbal communication
Patients were asked ;
1)Which doctor you will feel happiest seeing for the first time on a scale from 0-5.
2)Which doctor looks the most like your own doctor?
3)Whether they were confident in the abilities of the doctors in the pictures
4)They were asked whether they would be unhappy about consulting any of the doctors in the photographs
-In the final part of the questionnaire patients were asked a series of closed questions about doctor dress in general and to give their attitude about specific items of the dress of the doctor
-An attempt was made to survey patients at different times of the day , and the interviewer visited each surgery on 5 occasions
What are the results in the study by Mckinstry and Wang - non verbal communication
-Acceptability was the highest for male doctor in in smart suit and female doctor in skirt , blouse and woolen jumper
-Acceptability was the lowest for male doctor in jeans and female doctor in trousers
Demographic results ;
1)Older patients were more likely to give higher scores for the male doctor in white coat over formal suit. They were more likely to prefer the female doctor in white coat to the one in skirts and jumper
2)Social class 1 and 2 patients were more likely to give high scores to a traditionally dressed doctor especially a male doctor in a white coat.
3) sex - women patients ranked male doctors in the tweed jacket and tie more highly than did the male patients. 44% of male patients and 29% of female patients expressed the view that female doctors should wear a white coat.
28% of the patients said they would be unhappy consulting one of the doctors shown in the photographs usually the ones who are informally dressed.
What is the conclusion in the study by Mckinstry and Wang - non verbal communication
The way a doctor dresses matters in as far as the confidence and trust that their patients will have in their abilities , however there exist demographic differences in preference of doctors dressing
What is the aim of the example study by Mckinlay (1975) - verbal communication
To investigate the perceived and actual comprehension of medical terms by a sample of lower working class families
What is the sample
-Lower working class women in scotland
What is the procedure
-For one month the researchers joined doctors on their rounds in obstetrics and gynaecology wards at a hospital in order to gather a list of 57 words that were used regularly by a range of doctors or in the literature that was distributed to the mothers at the clinic.
-The list was then sent out to doctors who regularly served the maternity hospital and they were asked to cross out any words they wouldn’t generally use
-This resulted in a list of 13 words which was presented to the respondents in an interview . The words were first sounded out and then used in the context of a sentence , and the respondent was asked to explain their understanding of the term.
-The responses were recorded and then two doctors scored each response independently in terms of accuracy.
-A group of 13 other doctors were given the list of the 13 terms and were asked for each word whether they would expect the average lower working class mother to;
- not understand at all and say so
-get the meaning quite wrong
-have an incomplete or vague understanding
-understand pretty well
Describe the results
-For most words the two doctors scores were closely matched
-More senior doctors had a greater expectation of patient understanding than did junior doctors
-For 11 out of 13 words , utilisers had a better understanding than under-utilisers
-Utilisers for whom this was not their first baby showed a better understanding of medical terms than those who were pregnant for the first time.
-Both findings showed that experience seems to increase understanding levels
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What is the conclusion in the study by Mckinlay - verbal communication
There is a clear tendency among doctors to use words without any expectation of patients to understand their meaning.
Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about p-p interpersonal skills
-Objectivity
