Transcript Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal Skills
4 detailed studies
Health Psychology
Smiling a lot can make people
happy.
• Zuckerman et al (1981) divided males and
females into three groups.
1.The first group saw a film of a pleasant
scene.
2.The second group were shown a film of a
neutral scene.
3.The third group were shown a nasty film.
Within each group
1.a third were asked to suppress their facial
expressions,
2.a third were asked to exaggerate their
facial expressions
3.and the other third were not asked to do
anything apart from watching the film.
Results
• The people who exaggerated their facial
expressions showed higher levels of arousal and
reported stronger positive or negative emotional
reactions, compared with the other two groups.
• So making patients smile will make them feel
happier about themselves.
• Learning to suppress facial expressions at times
of stress could reduce stress.
Savage and Armstrong (1990)
• Savage and Armstrong (1990) found that
patients were more satisfied with a
‘directed consultation’ rather than a
‘sharing consultation’.
Savage and Armstrong (1990)
• Directed consultation – statements made such as
“you are suffering from…”, “it is essential that
you take this medication”, “you should be better
in …. days”, “come and see me in …. days”.
• Sharing consultation – “what do you think that is
wrong?”, “Would you like a prescription?”, “Are
there any other problems?”, “When would you
like to come and see me again?”
Savage and Armstrong (1990)
• 359 randomly selected patients – free to choose
their doctor. 200 results used.
• 2 questionnaires – one immediately and one a
week later.
• Results – overall a high level of satisfaction, but
higher for directed group. Higher for
‘satisfaction with explanation of doctor’ and with
‘own understanding of the problem’. More likely
to report that they had been ‘greatly helped’.
Mooney, K. M., 2001
• Mooney, K. M., 2001, 'Predictors of
patient satisfaction in an outpatient
surgery clinic’. Plastic Surgical
Nursing, 21, 3, 162-4
Aim
• To investigate which elements of the
patient-practitioner relationship lead to
satisfied patients.
Method
• A survey.
Participants
• An opportunity sample of 345 patients (96
per cent of those asked to participate)
attending an out-patient plastic surgery
clinic.
• Informed consent was obtained.
Procedure
• Following their visit to their doctor, the
participants were asked to complete the
Visit Specific Patient Satisfaction
Questionnaire (VSQ-9), a self-report, nineitem questionnaire that has been tested
previously as a valid measure of patientpractitioner relationships and can be
completed in about two minutes.
Procedure
• The participants were required to evaluate items
such as how long they waited to get an
appointment, time spent waiting at the surgery
before the doctor was seen, the explanation given
about any procedures undergone, the technical
skills (thoroughness, competence and
carefulness) of the practitioner and the
interpersonal skills (courtesy, sensitivity,
friendliness etc.) of the practitioner on a 5-point
scale ranging from poor to excellent.
Procedure
• The responses from each participant were
then transferred linearly to a 0-100 scale,
with 100 corresponding to 'excellent' and 0
corresponding to 'poor'. Responses to the
nine VSQ-9 items were then averaged to
create a VSQ-9 score for each participant.
Results
• 60 per cent rated their overall level of satisfaction
as excellent and 30 per cent as very good. The
quality of interaction with the practitioner
received the highest individual rating, while those
concerned with the facilities and access to
services were rated lower. The interpersonal
skills of the doctor were found to contribute more
to patient satisfaction than the technical skills of
the doctor and were considered to be a better
predictor of patient satisfaction.
Smucker, D. R., Konrad, T.
R., Curtis, P., Carey, T. S.,
1998
• , 'Practitioner self-confidence and
patient outcomes in acute back
pain', Archives of Family Medicine,
7, 223-8
Aim
• To investigate the extent to which
practitioners' levels of self-confidence act
as a predictor of outcome for patients with
lower back pain.
Method
• A correlation, utilizing a questionnaire to
measure self-confidence and attitudes and
telephone interviews to measure patients'
well-being.
Participants
• 189 doctors and chiropractors, randomly
selected from licensing databases in North
Carolina, USA, who regularly treated
patients for lower back pain. Informed
consent was obtained.
•
Procedure
• The medical practitioners were sent a postal
questionnaire to complete. The questionnaire
contained ten items such as, 'I lack the diagnostic
knowledge and tools to treat someone with lower
back pain', 'I know exactly what to do to treat
someone with lower back pain' and 'I feel very
comfortable treating people with lower back
pain', which assessed their self-confidence (the
first four items on the scale) and attitudes (the
next four items on the scale) in dealing with
patients with lower back pain.
Procedure
• The last two items dealt with knowledge of the
progression from acute to chronic low back pain
and patient satisfaction with treatment. The
practitioners had to use a 5-point Likert scale (1
= strongly agree, 5 = strongly disagree) to record
their level of agreement with each statement. The
scores for the first four items were added together
to generate a self-confidence score for each
practitioner and those for the next four yielded an
attitude score. The last two items were treated
individually.
Procedure
• The medical practitioners were also asked to
provide contact details of any patients who came
to them for treatment for lower back pain and had
not yet received any treatment. Additionally, all
the patients had to own a telephone and be able to
speak English. A total of 1633 patients were
recruited and informed consent was obtained
from them. The patients were telephoned
immediately after their initial visit to their
practitioner, and again after two, four, eight, 12
and 24 weeks or until they had fully recovered
from this episode of lower back pain.
Procedure
• The length of time until they had returned to a
level of functioning equal to that before the onset
of the lower back pain was recorded.
• The practitioners' self-confidence scores were
then compared with the length of time taken by
the patients to return to the same level of
functioning as prior to the lower back pain.
Results
• 179 (95 per cent) of the 189 practitioners sent the
questionnaire returned it, and of these 162 (86
per cent - 107 doctors, 55 chiropractors)
completed all ten items.
• A strong correlation was found between scores
on the first four items (measuring selfconfidence) and the next four items (measuring
attitudes) for both doctors and chiropractors. The
relationship between the item dealing with
patient satisfaction and the self-confidence score
was higher for the chiropractors than the doctors.
Results
•
Despite differences in levels of self-confidence
and attitudes among the health practitioners, there
was no significant relationship for either of these
factors with the length of time it took patients to
recover functionality. Thus it is not possible to
use a practitioner's level of self-confidence or
attitude as an indicator of the speed of recovery
from lower back pain.
End of detail