Participation of patients during general practice consultations

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We report an analysis of relationships between aspects of the verbal behaviour of trainee general practitioners (GPs) and their patients. Our focus of attention was on patients' initiatives in the discussion about treatment. We made a distinction between those that followed from something previously said by the doctor (which we argued were likely to have been formulated during the consultation), and those that did not (which could have been formulated beforehand). The incidence of the former was positively related to the incidence of doctors' questions to patients about the proposed treatment. In contrast, the incidence of the latter was not related to any of the coded characteristics of doctors' verbal behaviour. Results are interpreted within an information processing framework.