Bertakis, Klea D. "The Influence of Gender on the Doctor–patient Interaction☆." Patient Education and Counseling 76.3 (2009): 356-60. Print. The paper discusses the research focused on gender issue in a healthcare setting. Is the treatment from a certain sex better than the other? According to the research there are significant differences between the care style of doctors that are men and doctors that are women. According to the research, Female doctors provide more preventive services and psychosocial counseling; male doctors spend more time on technical practice behaviors, such as medical history taking and physical examination. The patients of female doctors are more satisfied, even after adjusting for patient characteristics and physician practice style." The take home point from this research, Doctor and patient gender can impact the physician–patient interaction and its outcomes.
Feddock, C. A., P. D. Bailey, C. H. Griffith, M. J. Lineberry, and J. F. Wilson. "Is Time Spent With the Physician Associated With Parent Dissatisfaction Due to Long Waiting Times?" Evaluation & the Health Professions 33.2 (2010): 216-25. Print. Dissatisfaction during a patient visit is not always the fault of the physician. Patients need to be understanding as well that waiting is very well a possibility before seeing a doctor. This article showed me that wait times associated before seeing a doctor decrease the satisfaction of the patient after seeing a physician. I see this as not necessarily the doctors downfall. I think to establish a very productive relationship with a patient, the patient needs to be understanding as well. However, according to the article, "More time spent with the physician was positively related to satisfaction independent of wait times. Furthermore, among clinic visits with long wait times, more time with the physician showed a relatively strong positive relationship with parent satisfaction." I am starting to see more that though the patient doctor interaction is a two way street, the physician needs to be the overall leader of the interaction.
Gray, Denis Pereira, Richard Baker, Arch G. Mainous Iii, and Margaret M. Love. "Exploration of the Relationship between Continuity, Trust in Regular Doctors and Patient Satisfaction with Consultations with Family Doctors." Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care 21.1 (2003): 27-32. Print. The research in this article highlights that after trust has been established between the doctor and patient, and the patient feels confident in the doctor- the patient will become a return/continual patient of the doctor. For the trust to be established, a patient needs to feel like they have been heard and fully understood. From the article, "Consulting the regular doctor, trust and satisfaction with consultations are associated, and patients who consult a doctor they trust report the highest levels of satisfaction with consultations."
Jagosh, Justin, Joseph Donald Boudreau, Yvonne Steinert, Mary Ellen MacDonald, and Lois Ingram. "The Importance of Physician Listening from the Patients’ Perspective: Enhancing Diagnosis, Healing, and the Doctor–patient Relationship." Patient Education and Counseling (2011): n. pag. Print. The topic of patient doctor communication is discussed in this research- but from the perspective of the patient. Elucidating the multiple functions of listening in the clinical encounter from patient perspectives can assist physicians in improving their listening approach." Patients from the study are often quoted throughout the research- and the input they provide is extremely valuable to me in my continuing research. One particular quote was important to me- “They should trust the person in front of them and hear what they’re saying…because I know my body better than anybody else, so I know what to expect and I know how to deal with the little aches and pains, and if the little aches and pains don’t go away, then it's not just about aging or stress, momentary situations…something is wrong, I just feel something is wrong and I think doctors should listen and investigate.” As the physician we are the professionals- but realistically- if we just listen to the patient, they will tell us what is wrong.
They all seem like very interesting articles! Maybe how sick the patient is would also affect this? I know when my grandma is very sick she doesn't care how long she has to wait to see a doctor just as long as she can see one, but when she isn't that sick she gets really impatient because she had to wait 40 minutes for a 10 minute check-up.
ReplyDeleteAwesome research topic. Those articles are interesting. If this is your senior project are you thinking of conducting an experiment or a literature review? Another factor I thought of after reading your blog was the effect of information and education from the physician to the patients, in the patient-physician relationship. It makes sense to me that if the physician is properly informing the patient, and teaching him/her about the medical condition, I think it would help the patient cope with the problem, and could facilitate a more positive prognosis.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Vika that would be a good research topic to do because of how slow our medical system is and how over worked our doctors are. you could even go into detail on how hard it is to become a doctor and thats hurting the medical field and whats causeing it to be slow.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that what times to see the doctor factor into the experience with the doctor. I guess I always just assumed it was part of the process. I wonder how much it would change patient satisfaction if the doctor focused resources on time management.
ReplyDeleteI was really interested in your research topic. I think it could be taken a few different ways. Sounds like it'll be fun to research! I agree with Ryan, you could do some research into how overworked the dr's are.
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