RIAS Works - Resources by Subject

Emergency Medicine

Dale J, Sandhu H, Lall R, Glucksman E. The patient, the doctor and the emergency department: a cross-sectional study of patient-centredness in 1990 and 2005. Patient Educ Couns. 2008 Aug;72(2):320-9.
(Emergency Medicine, United Kingdom)
OBJECTIVE: To compare and contrast the duration and content of physician-patient interaction for patients presenting to an emergency department with problems of low acuity in 1990 and 2005 treated by different grades of physician. METHODS: Observational study with data collection in May-July 1990 and May-July 2005. Patients identified at nurse triage as presenting with 'primary care' problems were allocated by time of arrival to senior house officers (1990, n=7; 2005, n=10), specialist registrars/staff grades (1990, n=4; 2005, n=7) or sessionally employed general practitioners (1990, n=8; 2005, n=12) randomly rostered to work in a consulting room that had a wall-mounted video camera. A stratified sample of 430 video-taped consultations (180 (42%) from 1990 and 250 (58%) from 2005) was analysed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Main outcome measures -- length of consultation; numbers of utterances of physician and patient talk related to building a relationship, data gathering, activating/partnering (i.e. actively encouraging the patient's involvement in decision-making), and patient education/counselling. RESULTS: On average consultation length was 251s (95% CI for difference: 185-316) longer in 2005 than in 1990. The difference was especially marked for senior house officers (mean duration 385s in 1990 and 778s in 2005; 95% CI of difference: 286-518). All groups of physician showed increased communication related to activating and partnering and building a therapeutic relationship with the patient. While senior house officers demonstrated a greatly increased focus on data gathering, only general practitioners substantially increased the amount of talk centred on patient education and counselling; compared to senior house officers, the odds ratio for the number of such utterances included in consultations was 2.8 (95% CI: 1.4, 5.3). CONCLUSION: Although patient-centredness together with consultation length increased for all three physician groups over the duration of this study, senior house officers and specialist registrars/staff grades continued to place less emphasis on advice-giving and counselling than did general practitioners. The extent to which these observed changes in practice were determined by policy, management and training initiatives, and their impact on patient outcome, needs further study. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Video-recording consultations is feasible in an acute hospital setting, and could be used to support training and workforce development. General practitioners can make a distinctive contribution to the workforce of emergency departments. Their consulting style differs from that of hospital physicians and may benefit patient care through a greater focus on patient education and counseling.

Farmer SA, Roter DL, Higginson IJ. Chest pain: communication of symptoms and history in a London emergency department. Patient Educ Couns. 2006 Oct; 63(1-2):138-44. Epub 2005 Oct 20.
(Emergency Medicine, United Kingdom)
OBJECTIVE: To describe patient-provider interactions for patients in an emergency department with possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and to generate hypotheses about how communication might contribute to sociocultural disparities in cardiac care. METHODS: Qualitative analysis of observational data. Seventy-four consecutive patients presenting between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. over a 4-month period. RESULTS: Participants were aged 40-85 years; 58% were male; 67% were white, 18% Afro-Caribbean, and 15% South East Asian. Observations revealed significant obstacles to communication for the majority of patients. The three most prominent impediments to effective communication were: the use of leading questions to define chest pain, patient-provider conflict as a result of, and contributor to, poor communication, and frank miscommunication due to language barriers and translational difficulties. CONCLUSION: This study documents aspects of the communication process that compromise the quality of the medical history obtained in emergency department patients with suspected ACS. Accurate diagnosis relies on an interaction that weaves both the patient's and the physician's perspective into a shared understanding of events that comprise a patient's history. When diagnostic short cuts are taken to overcome educational, cultural, or language barriers in the medical interview, they may contribute to health care disparities. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Physicians should take a more attentive and careful approach to patient interviewing than was observed here and should be aware of the ways in which they shape the interview through their questions and focus. Good communication skills can be effectively taught at all levels of training and practice.

Kim EJ. [Emergency nurse-patient interaction behavior][Article in Korean] Taehan Kanho Hakhoe Chi. 2005 Oct;35(6):1004-13.
(Emergency Medicine, Nursing, Korea)
PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study was to explore nurse-patient interaction behaviors and patient satisfaction with the interaction in the emergency department. METHOD: This study used video technology to record complete conversations between the nurse and patient, thus obtaining the interactions naturally occurring in a clinical setting. The participants were 28 nurses and 63 patients in the emergency department at one university hospital located in Seoul. The data was collected from November, 2002 to April, 2003. The video recordings were observed for 4 hours for each case and coded using an adapted version of Roter's Interaction Analysis System (RIAS), which yields frequencies of thirty-six types of interaction behaviors. RESULT: The information exchange related to therapeutic items including medications, simple orientation, and situational positive talk were characterized in the nurses' interaction behaviors. Giving information about one's own condition, questions about therapeutic regimen, and showing worry were characterized in patient interaction behaviors. The patients' satisfaction with the interaction was 37.75.9 (range 9-45). CONCLUSION: The emergency nurse-patient interaction behavior was task-related. The results suggest that identification of effective interaction behavior in the Emergency department and an interaction skill training program could increase patient satisfaction.

Sandhu H, Dale J, Stallard N, Crouch R, Glucksman E. Emergency nurse practitioners and doctors consulting with patients in an emergency department: a comparison of communication skills and satisfaction. Emerg Med J. 2009 Jun;26(6):400-4.
(Emergency Medicine, United Kingdom)
BACKGROUND: Emergency nurse practitioners (ENPs) play an increasingly important role in UK emergency departments (EDs), but there is limited evidence about how this affects patient care and outcome. A study was undertaken to compare the content of, and satisfaction with, consultations made with patients presenting with problems of low acuity to an ED. METHODS: Patients presenting with "primary care" problems were allocated to senior house officers (SHOs, n = 10), specialist registrars/staff grades (n = 7), sessionally-employed general practitioners (GPs, n = 12) or ENPs (n = 6) randomly rostered to work in a consulting room that had a wall-mounted video camera. At the end of each consultation the doctor/ENP and the patient were asked to complete the Physician/Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire. A stratified sample of videotaped consultations (n = 296) was analysed in depth using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. The main outcome measures were length of consultation; numbers of utterances of doctor/ENP and patient talk related to building a relationship, data gathering, activating/partnering, and patient education/counselling; doctor/ENP and patient consultation satisfaction scores. RESULTS: ENPs and GPs focused more on patient education and counselling about the medical condition or therapeutic regimen than did ED doctors. There were no significant differences in consultation length. ENPs had higher levels of overall self-satisfaction with their consultations than ED doctors. Patient satisfaction with how actively they participated in the consultation was significantly associated with the amount of talk relating to building a relationship and activating and partnering, and patient satisfaction with information giving in the consultation was significantly associated with the amount of talk relating to building a relationship. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest differences between ENP and ED doctor consultations which are associated with some aspects of patient satisfaction. In contrast to previous reports, consultation length was not greater for ENPs than for doctors. There is a need for further research to test the generalisability of these findings and their impact on clinical outcome.

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