Physician Communication Skills: Results of a Survey of General/Family Practitioners in Newfoundland

• Main Authors: Fredrick Ashbury Phd, Fredrick D. Ashbury, Donald C. Iverson, Phd Boris Kralj
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.20.8154; http://www.msu.edu/%7Edsolomon//res00014.pdf

15> A total of 160 completed surveys was received from practicing family physicians /general practitioners in Newfoundland, yielding an adjusted response rate of 43.1%. Most of the respondents (83.8%) indicated their communication skills are as important as technical skills in terms of achieving positive patient outcomes. Between one-third and one-half of the respondents, depending on the educational level queried, rated their communications skills training as being inadequate. Fewer than 20% of the respondents rated the communications skills training they received as being excellent. Physicians indicated a need to improve their use of 8 of 13 specific communication strategies during patient encounters, and reported using few communication strategies during the closing minutes of the encounter. Interactions that occurred during a typical encounter tended to focus on biomedical versus psychosocial issues. Conclusions: Family physicians/general practitioners rec