Assessing communication competence in the primary care medical interview

The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary results of a language‐based coding system to analyze physician‐patient communication. This system is grounded in the framework of Cegala and Waldron\u27s (1992) context‐based model of communication competence which reflects the sequential development of talk as primary to definitions of competence. Given a review of the model and identification of information exchange and relational development as the primary tasks in the medical interview, two research questions were advanced to test a coding scheme. Based on the notion that aligning one\u27s utterances to meet self‐ and other‐goals relates to communication competence, the coding scheme was developed to include message content, function, and uptake. Frequency results showed that 32 physician‐patient dyads produced 10, 958 coded utterances. Physicians and patients contributed relatively equal numbers of units. The frequencies of each category and exploratory sequential patterns relating to competence are summarized along with a discussion of the limitations of the analytical system. Overall, the code system provided new information on content, uptake, and sequential patterns of information exchange previously unavailable from published coding scheme results. Yet, the present scheme needs to be refined to produce output that more readily identifies competent and less competent interactions. These results and issues are placed in the context of an ongoing, larger research program on communication competence in the primary care interview

Components of Patients\u27 and Doctors\u27 Perceptions of Communication Competence During a Primary Care Medical Interview

Although considerable attention has been given to doctor-patient communica- tion, relatively little research on this topic is grounded in theory. Some scholars have suggested that the concept of communication competence may serve as a useful theoretical framework for future research into doctor-patient communication. The purpose of this article was to identify components of doctors\u27 and patients\u27 communicative competence during a primary care medical interview. Doctors and patients were asked to rate self- and other-competence and to identify what particular behaviors led them to their judgments. The behavior descriptions were content analyzed to determine the components of competence assessments. The results suggest that information exchange and relational development comprise most of the behaviors doctors and patients identify with judgments of communication competence. However, additional data indicate that information exchange concerns are dominant on the part of both doctors\u27 and patients\u27 perceptions of self- and other-competence. In addition, doctors and patients agree that the onus of relational work during the medical interview is assumed to fall on the doctors\u27 shoulders

A Study of Doctors\u27 and Patients\u27 Perceptions of Information Processing and Communication Competence During the Medical Interview

Although considerable attention has been given to doctor-patient communica- tion, little work has examined how doctors and patients process information obtained through interaction. The purpose of this research was to examine differences in doctors\u27 and patients\u27 thoughts and feelings and their perceptions of information exchange and relational communication during a medical interview. The results indicate that doctors and patients differ in their thoughts and feelings along several lines and in their views of communication functions. The results are discussed in terms of previous research on doctor-patient communi- cation and implications for communication skills training for both doctors and patients