Assessment of the physician-caregiver relationship scales (PCRS)

The physician-caregiver relationship affects patients' health outcomes, but measures of this important relationship are lacking. We develop and validate the physician-caregiver relationship scales (PCRS), incorporating three relationship domains (liking, understanding, dominance).

Videotapes of 100 children's visits were coded for verbal and nonverbal communication. Roter interaction analysis system utterance categories (personal remarks, laughter, agreements, approvals, concerns, reassurances, back channels and empathy) and summary measures (physician proportion of total talk and of number of questions) along with nonverbal measures (touch initiations, upright postures and leaning toward a participant) were used as indicators. Model fit was evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Validity was evaluated by associations of the PCRS with visit characteristics and global affect ratings.

PCRS domains incorporating verbal and nonverbal indicators demonstrated good model fit (RMSEA<0.05; SRMR<0.12; TLI and CFI>0.95). Construct and predictive validity were demonstrated with PCRS domains relating to visit characteristics and affect ratings as predicted.

CFA supported the multi-dimensional PCRS with three domains-liking, understanding and dominance. Such measures are valuable tools for investigations of physician-caregiver relationships.

Models suggest specific indicators of the physician-caregiver relationship and inform interventions to improve these relationships.