Are patients' preferences regarding the place of treatment heard and addressed at the point of referral: an exploratory study based on observations of GP-patient consultations.

Background: Today, in several north-western European countries, patients are encouraged to choose, actively, a healthcare provider. However, patients often visit the provider that is recommended by their general practitioner (GP). The introduction of patient choice requires GPs to support patients to be involved, actively, in the choice of a healthcare provider.

Examining the content of weight, nutrition and physical activity advices provided by Dutch practice nurses in primary care: analysis of videotaped consultations.

Background/objective: To examine the content of Dutch practice nurses' (PNs') advices about weight, nutrition and physical activity to overweight and obese patients.

Subjects/methods: A 100 videotaped real-life PN consultations (The Netherlands, 2010/2011) with overweight or obese patients were selected. An observational checklist was developed to assess frequency and content.

Supporting a person-centred approach in clinical guidelines. A position paper of the Allied Health Community - Guidelines International Network (G-I-N).

Background: A person-centred approach in the context of health services delivery implies a biopsychosocial model focusing on all factors that influence the person's health and functioning. Those wishing to monitor change should consider this perspective when they develop and use guidelines to stimulate active consideration of the person's needs, preferences and participation in goal setting, intervention selection and the use of appropriate outcome measures.

Objective: To develop a position paper that promotes a person-centred approach in guideline development and implementation.

Midwives' views on appropriate antenatal counselling for congenital anomaly tests: do they match clients' preferences?

Objective: this study aims to provide insight into: (a) midwives' views on appropriate antenatal counselling for congenital anomaly tests, and (b) whether these views match clients' preferences regarding antenatal counselling.

Design: a comparative (midwives versus clients) questionnaire survey. Cognitive interviews (n=8) were used to validate the internal validity of the midwifery questionnaire results.

Context factors in consultations of general practitioner trainees and their impact on communication assessment in the authentic setting.

Objective: Acquiring adequate communication skills is an essential part of general practice (GP) specialty training. In assessing trainee proficiency, the context in which trainees communicate is usually not taken into account. The present paper aims to explore what context factors can be found in regular GP trainee consultations and how these influence their communication performance.

Does and should breast cancer genetic counselling include lifestyle advice?

To optimally inform counselees about their and their relatives' risks, information about lifestyle risk factors, e.g. physical activity and alcohol consumption, might be discussed in breast cancer genetic counselling.

Barriers and facilitators to effective communication experienced by patients with malignant lymphoma at all stages after diagnosis.

Objective: This study aims to gain insight into patient-perceived communication barriers and facilitators at different stages after the diagnosis of malignant lymphoma. We have detected patterns to explain when these factors influence communication predominantly.

Method: A qualitative approach was applied, derived from the context mapping framework.

Shared Medical Appointments marginally enhance interaction between patients: an observational study on children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Objective: To examine informational and emotional patient-provider and patient-patient communication sequences (i.e. cues and subsequent responses) during Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) for children and adolescents with type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) and their parents.

Nonverbal communication and conversational contribution in breast cancer genetic counseling: are counselors' nonverbal communication and conversational contribution associated with counselees' satisfaction, needs fulfillment and state anxiety in breast cancer genetic counseling?

Objective: The current study aimed to examine how counselors' nonverbal communication (i.e. nonverbal encouragements and counselee-directed eye gaze) and conversational contribution (i.

Context factors in general practitioner-patient encounters and their impact on assessing communication skills--an exploratory study.

Background: Assessment of medical communication performance usually focuses on rating generically applicable, well-defined communication skills. However, in daily practice, communication is determined by (specific) context factors, such as acquaintance with the patient, or the presented problem. Merely valuing the presence of generic skills may not do justice to the doctor's proficiency.

Motivational interviewing within the different stages of change: an analysis of practice nurse-patient consultations aimed at promoting a healthier lifestyle.

Combining the Stages of Change (SOC) model with Motivational Interviewing (MI) is seen as a helpful strategy for health care providers to guide patients in changing unhealthy lifestyle behaviour. SOC suggests that people are at different stages of motivational readiness for engaging in health behaviours and that intervention methods are most useful when tailored to a person's stage of change. However, it is unknown whether practice nurses (PNs) actually adapt their MI and more generic communication skills to a particular stage during real-life face-to-face consultations with their patients.

Older cancer patients' information and communication needs: what they want is what they get?

Objective: To evaluate what information and communication aspects older cancer patients (≥65) consider important in preparing for chemotherapy treatment (CT), the extent to which this corresponds with what oncology nurses consider important, and the extent to which nurses attend to these aspects during real-life educational visits in oncology.

Methods: The QUOTE(chemo) was used to have patients (n=116) and nurses (n=123) rate the importance of 66 aspects of patient education. Subsequently, the implementation of these 66 aspects during videotaped nursing visits (n=155) with older cancer patients receiving CT for the first time was examined.

A smartphone-based intervention with diaries and therapist feedback to reduce catastrophizing and increase functioning in women with chronic widespread pain. part 2: 11-month follow-up results of a randomized trial.

Background: Internet-based interventions are increasingly used to support self-management of individuals with chronic illnesses. Web-based interventions may also be effective in enhancing self-management for individuals with chronic pain, but little is known about long-term effects. Research on Web-based interventions to support self-management following participation in pain management programs is limited.

Prenatal counseling for congenital anomaly tests: parental preferences and perceptions of midwife performance.

Objective: Evidence-based instruments to evaluate the preferences and experiences of future parents regarding prenatal counseling for congenital anomaly tests are currently lacking. We developed the quality of care through clients' eyes prenatal questionnaire (QUOTE(prenatal) ), a client-centered instrument, and assessed its components. Furthermore, the QUOTE(prenatal) was used to provide insight into (1) clients' previsit preferences and (2) clients' postvisit experience, that is, perceived care provider performance regarding the counseling they received.

Web-based, self-management enhancing interventions with e-diaries and personalized feedback for persons with chronic illness: a tale of three studies.

Objective: Chronic illness places high demands on patients. Interventions supporting self-management and providing personalized feedback might help patients to gain new perspectives and enhance use of constructive self-management strategies. We developed three comparable web-based CBT-grounded interventions including e-diaries and feedback delivered through PDAs/smartphones.

A smartphone-based intervention with diaries and therapist-feedback to reduce catastrophizing and increase functioning in women with chronic widespread pain: randomized controlled trial.

Background: Internet-based interventions using cognitive behavioral approaches can be effective in promoting self-management of chronic pain conditions. Web-based programs delivered via smartphones are increasingly used to support the self-management of various health disorders, but research on smartphone interventions for persons with chronic pain is limited.

Objective: The aim of this trial was to study the efficacy of a 4-week smartphone-delivered intervention with written diaries and therapist feedback following an inpatient chronic pain rehabilitation program.

Do trained practice nurses apply motivational interviewing techniques in primary care consultations?

Background: Reducing the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle behaviour could positively influence health. Motivational interviewing (MI) is used to promote change in unhealthy lifestyle behaviour as part of primary or secondary prevention. Whether MI is actually applied as taught is unknown.

Exploring lifestyle counselling in routine primary care consultations: the professionals' role.

Background: It is generally acknowledged that GPs and practice nurses (PNs) may significantly contribute to a patient's healthy lifestyle behaviour. Two counselling techniques are known to strengthen this process: tailoring information and advice about lifestyle behaviour to a patient and motivational interviewing (MI). It is not clear to what extent GPs and PNs actually apply these techniques during routine consultations.

Retraction: Effects of a pre-visit educational website on information recall and needs fulfilment in breast cancer genetic counselling, a randomized controlled trial.

The authors would like to retract their article “Effects of a pre-visit educational website on information recall and needs fulfilment in breast cancer genetic counselling, a randomized controlled trial” [1]. After publication of this paper the co-authors noticed a discrepancy between the analyses as described (intention-to-treat analysis) and the analyses as performed (per-protocol analysis), leading to an overestimation of the intervention effects. Therefore the authors have decided to retract this paper in its current form.

Definition and structure of body-relatedness from the perspective of patients with severe somatoform disorder and their therapists.

Background: How a patient is connected with one's body is core to rehabilitation of somatoform disorder but a common model to describe body-relatedness is missing. The aim of our study was to investigate the components and hierarchical structure of body-relatedness as perceived by patients with severe somatoform disorder and their therapists.

Methods: Interviews with patients and therapists yielded statements about components of body-relatedness.

Development and content of a group-based intervention to improve medication adherence in non-adherent patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To describe the systematic development and content of a short intervention to improve medication adherence to disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in non-adherent patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: The intervention mapping (IM) framework was used to develop the intervention. The following IM steps were conducted: (1) a needs assessment; (2) formulation of specific intervention objectives; (3) inventory of methods and techniques needed to design the intervention and (4) production and piloting of the intervention.

Communication-related behavior change techniques used in face-to-face lifestyle interventions in primary care: a systematic review of the literature.

Objectives: To systematically review the literature on the relative effectiveness of face-to-face communication-related behavior change techniques (BCTs) provided in primary care by either physicians or nurses to intervene on patients' lifestyle behavior.

Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINAHL and The Cochrane Library were searched for studies published before October 2010. Fifty studies were included and assessed on methodological quality.

Are health professionals' perceptions of patient safety related to figures on safety incidents?

Objective: The study aims to explore whether health care professionals' perceptions of patient safety in their practice were associated with the number of patient safety incidents identified in patient records.

Setting: Seventy primary care practices of general practice, general dental practice, midwifery practices and allied health care practices were used in the study.

Methods: A retrospective audit of 50 patient records was performed to identify patient safety incidents in each of the practices and a survey among health professionals to identify their perceptions of patient safety.

Learning in context: identifying gaps in research on the transfer of medical communication skills to the clinical workplace.

Objective: In order to reduce the inconsistencies of findings and the apparent low transfer of communication skills from training to medical practice, this narrative review identifies some main gaps in research on medical communication skills training and presents insights from theories on learning and transfer to broaden the view for future research.

Methods: Relevant literature was identified using Pubmed, GoogleScholar, Cochrane database, and Web of Science; and analyzed using an iterative procedure.

Results: Research findings on the effectiveness of medical communication training still show inconsistencies and variability.

The development and feasibility of a web-based intervention with diaries and situational feedback via smartphone to support self-management in patients with diabetes type 2.

Aims: The aim of the study was to develop and test the feasibility of a three months web-based intervention, delivered by a smartphone to support self-management in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: The intervention included use of a smartphone enabling access to daily web-based diaries and individualized written situational feedback. The participants registered their eating behavior, medication taking, physical activities and emotions three times daily using the mobile device.