Physicians Communication as Manifestation of Relationship-Centered Healthcare: Analysis of a Year of Physicians’ Written Reflections

• In Event: Interpersonal Provider, Patient, and Partner Talk About Health

Abstract

Physician/patient communication involves straightforward statements as well as implicit cues that give broader context to patients’ illness experiences. This project examines physicians’ written reflections that offer insight into their interpretation of both the stated and the tacit aspects of their observations about communication, their resulting responses, and their intended actions. Tufts University Family medicine residents (N= 33) of the Tufts Family Medicine Cambridge Health Alliance completed three reflective exercises each week over the course of one year (N=756 reflective entries). An interdisciplinary research team identified communication-related concepts within the reflections. Identified themes include 1) physicians recognizing and discovering mutual interplay of their communication with and patient disclosure, 2) physicians paying attention to subtleties of patient behavior as indicative of a fuller picture of patients’ lives and their coping with illness, and 3) physician images of growth and awareness about communication indicative of their potential for growth/improvement.

Authors

• Ashley P. Duggan, Boston College

• Andrea Vicini, Boston College

• Lucas Allen, Boston College

• Allen F. Shaughnessy, Tufts U School of Medicine