Communication Difficulties: the Doctor's Perspective

Abstract

Two studies are reported. In the first study, 24 general practitioners from the Oxford region of England provided information about 950 of their consultations. The aims of the study were threefold. The first aim was to discover the rate at which general practitioners experience communication difficulties in their consultations. This was an attempt to establish the ecological validity of the investigations. The second aim was to explore the doctors' attributions for their difficulties. The third aim was to identify the consultation variables which best predict the incidence of a communication difficulty. The second study was a full scale replication of the first study in Holland. In this study data were analysed from 28 doctors about 1120 of their consultations. In each study, approximately one in four of the consultations contained some communication difficulty for the doctors. The doctors attributed the difficulties to factors which were external to themselves. The most powerful predictors of communication difficulties were tension in the doctors and perceived tension in the patients. The theoretical, methodological and practical implications of the findings are discussed.