Health Professional Communication Competences and Patient Evaluation in the Therapeutic Encounter

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the health professionals' competences and inherent evaluation by patients during the therapeutic relationship. It is grounded on a literature review and proposals on best practices to adopt in health encounters. It can be concluded that the use of communication competences by health professionals influences the patients' evaluation and their health outcomes, demonstrating that “it takes two to tango.” Results have shown that, among the communication competences, are empathy, respect, inclusion of patient in health decisions, confirmation of understanding, use of a plain language, positivity. On the patients' side, the expectations tend to be related to the communication styles of health professionals, the humanization of relationship, and the use of a personalized communication; the communication lapses are more associated with poor attitudes of health professionals, and the patients' sociodemographic attributes influence their expectations.