Patient perceptions of health professional interpersonal skills

Abstract

Clinician interpersonal skills in interaction with patients are broadly conceptualised as having task (instrumental) and socioemotional (affective) dimensions. There has been, however, inconsistency in the assignation of specific skills to these dimensions, and lack of information on how patients perceive these dimensions. Ninety-eight patients, who were being given instruction in the use of contact lenses, filled in a 27-item questionnaire on clinician skills and patient perception of clinician qualities such as empathy. Factor analysis indicated three dimensions of patient response. The first was a socioemotional factor, reflecting skills such as questioning which encourages patient participation. The other two factors were a task factor (directive information-giving) and a factor indicating clinician ease in the interaction.