Verbal interactions in general practice. Information, support and doctor satisfaction

The general practice encounter can be seen as an exchange of information aimed at relief of the patient's presenting symptoms, and it is acknowledged that this goal can most effectively be achieved within the context of the professional's emotional support of the patient. We sought to describe the processes of information exchange and emotional support in detail, and to explore any differences in the speech pattern which were related to the doctors' lesser satisfaction with some consultations.

Transcripts of general practice consultations (n = 143) from five medical practitioners were coded and analysed.

The verbal interactions of the consultation were described in categories: for doctors, emotional support, informational support, and diagnostic activity; and for patients, relationship oriented and task oriented. Doctors also rated their satisfaction with each consultation.

About two-thirds of the speech by both parties was found to be devoted to information exchange in the forms of diagnosis and medical advice, and the rest to the relationship between the participants. Doctors' satisfaction ratings (extremely satisfactory or otherwise) could be predicted from speech and activity variables by means of logistic regression.

This study describes the verbal interaction which is the vehicle for medical helping in general practice, and it forms a foundation for needed research on how certain features of the verbal interaction are related to quality of care.