The Empathic Patient Centered Approach in the Anesthetic Preoperative Interview

Abstract

Background: Multiple studies in the primary care field have indicated the benefits of using a patient centered approach in communication with the patient; such interviewing methods have been shown to improve patient satisfaction and adherence. There is a scarcity of anesthetic literature regarding communication skills in the perioperative period. The goal is to analyze to what extent empathic patient-centered communication methods are being used by anesthesia providers. Communication scores will be compared among providers, as well as to providers across several different subspecialties. Methods: This study is an observational descriptive study at a large tertiary care center, University Hospital in Newark, NJ. The observer observes and grades patient interviews, scoring against established criteria using an adapted version of the Kalamazoo grading tool. The researcher observes and grades the preoperative interview using the adapted Kalamazoo scale. At the end of the observed encounter, the anesthesia providers are asked to fill out a brief form detailing their demographic history, details regarding the providers’ length and type of clinical education and training, undergraduate education, previous communication training, number of years of practice, primary language, gender, and age will be obtained. Results: Anesthesia providers included in the study were physician anesthesiologists, residents, and nurse anesthetists. The average Kalamazoo score was 28.7 amongst all providers. There was no significant effect of provider level on the score at the p Conclusions: The data revealed anesthesia providers provide patient-centered encounters with a mean score of 28.7, which is higher than the average for providers from multiple different specialties observed in Joyce, et al. study (mean score of 25.25). The subcategories “Understanding patient’s perspective” and “reaches agreement” scored 3.86, and 3.83, respectively. This may indicate that anesthesia providers can improve on allowing the patient to communicate their understanding of anesthesia, as well as collecting information from the patient that can affect their anesthesia (i.e., severe nausea following previous anesthesia).