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Why don't health professionals check patient understanding? A questionnaire-based study
Holly Baker1, Rachel Crockett, Kai Uus
1Department of Psychology, Health Psychology Section, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
Psychology, Health & Medicine
|May 19, 2007
Summary
Healthcare professionals often lack confidence and perceive asking questions as ineffective for checking patient understanding. Training should address both skills and beliefs regarding communication effectiveness in medical settings.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare communication
- Patient understanding assessment
Background:
- Checking patient understanding is crucial but under-assessed.
- Newborn hearing screening (NHS) in England provided a context to study communication of novel information.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate why newborn hearing screeners did not ask questions to check patient understanding.
- To identify barriers to using this core communication skill.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial (RCT) investigating training for screeners was prematurely stopped.
- Questionnaires were administered to screeners (87% response rate) to understand their reasons for not asking questions.
Main Results:
- Screeners who did not ask questions reported lower confidence in their ability.
- These screeners perceived asking questions as an ineffective method for improving patient understanding.
Conclusions:
- Healthcare professionals' ability and willingness to use basic communication skills may be overestimated.
- Effective training must address not only communication skills but also beliefs about their efficacy.
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