Identifying strategies to implement patient-centred care for women: Qualitative interviews with women

Patient-centred care (PCC) is one approach for mitigating gendered inequities in health care quality. Little is known about how to implement PCC for women (PCCW). This study explored women's views about PCCW implementation.

Descriptive analysis of semi-structured qualitative telephone interviews with diverse women about PCC using an established 6-domain PCC framework.

Participants were 33 women who varied in health care experience, age, education and setting. Themes were consistent across these characteristics. Women said that clinicians often dismissed their healthcare concerns. We transformed desired PCC elements into strategies to implement PCCW, 27 at the point-of-care (i.e. assume a non-judgmental disposition, demonstrate active listening, elicit questions, acknowledge emotions, explore preferences for treatment, and offer self-care information) and 3 at the system level (education for women/girls and clinicians about PCCW, widespread access to women's-only services or women clinicians).

Many women experienced suboptimal PCC. By sharing their PCC experiences, women identified PCC elements of importance to them, and insight on actionable point-of-care and system-level strategies to implement PCCW.

This study revealed numerous ways that clinicians can foster PCCW, and insight on how healthcare managers and policy-makers can support PCCW implementation.