Topic 5 Patient-Centered Communication
- Definition:
“To acknowledge the whole person, their personality, life history, and social structure in order to develop a shared understanding of the problem, the goals and the barriers to wellness”
Source: Pexels
The core concepts of Patient-Centered Communication include:
Eliciting and understanding patient perspectives (e.g., concerns, ideas, expectations, needs, feelings, and functioning)
Understanding the patient within his or her unique psychosocial and cultural contexts
Reaching a shared understanding of patient problems and the treatments that are concordant with patient values
- Numerous empirical studies from various populations and settings link patient treatment adherence to physician-patient communication.
- There are found positive associations between physician communication behaviors and positive patient outcomes, such as patient recall, patient understanding, and patient adherence regarding:
- fostering the relationship
- gathering information
- providing information
- making decisions
- responding to emotions
- enabling disease- and treatment-related behavior
- One way of conceptualizing the Patient-Centered Communication for encounters is to consider both parties’ agendas i.e., both the health professional and the patient
1. The physician’s focus is on explaining the illness in terms of the taxonomy of disease
2. The patient’s focus encompasses perspectives on his or her illness, the need for information and understanding, and the desire for partnership in management