Background: Public health campaigns have often used persuasive techniques to promote healthy behaviors but the use of persuasion by doctors is controversial. We sought to examine older women's perspectives.
Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 community-dwelling older women from the Baltimore metropolitan area.
Against Medical Advice (AMA) discharges pose significant challenges to the healthcare system, straining patient-clinician relationships while contributing to avoidable morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, though these discharges culminate in patients' departure from hospitals, their effects reverberate long after, propagated by clinician notes stored in patients' medical records. These notes capture exceptionally fraught interactions between patients and providers, describing the circumstances surrounding breakdowns in clinical relationships.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAgainst medical advice (AMA) discharges are practically and emotionally challenging for both patients and clinicians. Moreover, they are common after admissions for respiratory conditions such as COPD and asthma, and they are associated with poor outcomes. Despite the challenges presented by AMA discharges, clinicians rarely receive formal education and have limited guidance on how to approach these discharges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClinician racial bias has been associated with less patient-centered communication, but little is known about how it affects trainees' communication. We investigated genetic counseling students' communication during sessions with Black or White standardized patients (SPs) and the extent to which communication was associated with SP race or student scores on the Race Implicit Association Test (IAT). Sixty students conducted a baseline SP session and up to two follow-up sessions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatient-centered care (PCC) improves HIV adherence and retention, though lack of consensus on its conceptualization and understanding how it is interpreted has hindered implementation. We recruited 20 HIV providers at Ryan White Programs in FL for in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis identified core consistencies pertaining to: 1) provider perceptions, 2) current practices promoting PCC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe assessed the role of patient-centered care on durable viral suppression (i.e., all viral load test results < 200 copies per ml during 2019) by conducting a retrospective cohort study of clients medically case managed by the Miami-Dade County Ryan White Program (RWP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Respect is essential to providing high quality healthcare, particularly for groups that are historically marginalized and stigmatized. While ethical principles taught to health professionals focus on patient autonomy as the object of respect for persons, limited studies explore patients' views of respect. The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of a multiculturally diverse group of low-income women living with HIV (WLH) regarding their experience of respect from their medical physicians.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To identify communication strategies that may improve clinician-patient interactions, we assessed the association between clinician response to emotion and patient ratings of communication.
Methods: From a cohort of 1817 clinician-patient encounters, we designed a retrospective case-control study by identifying 69 patients who rated their interpersonal care as low-quality and 69 patients who rated their care as high-quality. We used the Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences (VR-CoDES) to identify patient emotional expressions and clinician responses.
Background: Hypoglycaemia from diabetes treatment causes morbidity and lower quality of life, and prevention should be routinely addressed in clinical visits.
Methods: This mixed methods study evaluated how primary care providers (PCPs) assess for and prevent hypoglycaemia by analyzing audio-recorded visits from five Veterans Affairs medical centres in the US. Two investigators independently coded visit dialogue to classify discussions of hypoglycaemia history, anticipatory guidance, and adjustments to hypoglycaemia-causing medications according to diabetes guidelines.
Objective: To explore the validity of computer-analyzed linguistic style matching (LSM) in patient-clinician communication.
Methods: Using 330 transcribed HIV patient encounters, we quantified word use with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a dictionary-based text analysis software. We measured LSM by calculating the degree to which clinicians matched patients in the use of LIWC "function words" (e.
Women with HIV (WWH) face increased difficulties maintaining adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) due to a variety of demographic and psychosocial factors. To navigate the complexities of ART regimens, use of strategies to maintain adherence is recommended. Research in this area, however, has largely focused on adherence interventions, and few studies have examined self-reported preferences for adherence strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOtolaryngol Head Neck Surg
February 2024
Objective: We characterize clinician information-sharing and parent verbal engagement during pediatric adenotonsillectomy consultations and evaluate whether these behaviors relate to disease-specific knowledge for parents of children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (OSDB).
Study Design: Mixed-methods sequential explanatory analysis.
Setting: Outpatient otolaryngology clinics.
HIV clinicians face increasing time constraints. Our objective was to describe the prevalence and quality of behavior change counseling within routine HIV visits and to explore whether clinicians may provide lower quality counseling when facing increased counseling demands. We audio-recorded and transcribed encounters between 205 patients and 12 clinicians at an urban HIV primary care clinic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients highly value being listened to, taken seriously, heard, and understood; indeed, listening to patients is essential to alleviate suffering. Yet listening as a clinical skill has been virtually ignored in the training of physicians. In this paper, we synthesize literature related to listening in medicine and explore the internal and external challenges and complexity of listening - including the need to listen with a diagnostic as well as a relational ear to take in physical symptoms, emotions, and contexts - often in chaotic and time-pressured environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Despite decades of communication training, studies repeatedly demonstrate that clinicians fail to elicit patients' agendas. Our goal was to provide clinicians with actionable guidance about the effectiveness of agenda-soliciting questions.
Methods: We coded clinician agenda-soliciting questions and patient responses in audio-recorded ambulatory encounters at an urban academic hospital.
Purpose: Many medical school curricula include Scholarly Concentrations (SC) programs. While studies have examined how these programs affect students' future research involvement, the association of SC programs with students' specialty choices is uncertain. This study examines the SC program factors associated with congruence between the specialty focus of students' SC projects and the clinical specialty they matched into for residency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWomen with HIV in the United States are more negatively affected by adverse social determinants such as low education and poverty than men, and thus, especially need a supportive health care system. This cross-sectional study assessed the role of the patient-provider relationship on antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence and durable viral suppression among women with HIV (WHIV) in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Patient-provider relationship was measured, in part, using the Health Care Relationship Trust Scale and Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine the efficacy of a brief, online intervention designed to enhance genetic counseling students' patient-centered communication.
Methods: Genetic counseling students and recent graduates were randomized to two groups following a baseline standardized patient (SP) session: (1) immediate intervention exposure, which consisted of five modules that taught patient-centered communication skills followed by a second SP session, or (2) delayed intervention exposure following completion of the second session. Sessions were coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System.
This exploratory study examined sex differences in psychosocial and demographic factors associated with sustained HIV viral suppression (SVS). The study population included 6,489 Miami-Dade Ryan White Program (RWP) clients receiving services during 2017; administrative data was analyzed. SVS was defined as having all viral load tests during 2017 below 200 copies/ml.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow-income, minority women living with HIV often experience multiple barriers in care that contribute to suboptimal care outcomes. Medical case managers (MCM) and medical providers are key players involved in care coordination and aid women along the HIV care continuum. The objective of this study was to identify current and potential patient-centered practices that facilitate adherence to medication and retention in care, from the perspective of racially and ethnically diverse women living with HIV.
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