Modeling patient-centered communication: Oncologist relational communication and patient communication involvement in breast cancer adjuvant therapy decision-making

Abstract

Objective-Relational communication refers to those messages communicators naturally express that carry meaning about the type and quality of relationship they share. It is expected that patients of oncologists who express positive relational communication will be more communicatively involved in their office visits, and regret their decision for adjuvant therapy following surgery less. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Methods-One Conflict of interestThe authors state no actual or potential conflict of interest, including financial, personal or organizational, within three years of beginning the submitted work, that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. NIH Public Access

Communicating good care: A qualitative study of what people with urological cancer value in interactions with health care providers

“…Relational communication has been described in the literature as "those identifiable verbal and nonverbal behaviours that carry message value about the type of relationship the communicators share" Step et al, 2009). In our study with urological cancer patients, good relational communication (from the perceptions of these patients)…”

“…Clayton et al, 2005;Fogarty et al, 1999;Kim et al, 2004;Neumann et al, 2007;Roberts et al, 2005;Schofield et al, 2003;Schneider et al, 2004) and negatively (Thorne et al, 2008), impacting for example on treatment adherence (Roberts et al, 2005;Schneider et al, 2004;), patient anxiety and depression (Fogarty et al, 1999;Schofield et al, 2003), and patient satisfaction (Kim et al, 2004). A small but growing body of evidence suggests that communication with health care providers can significantly affect the extent to which patients feel cared for, respected and involved (Burkitt-Wright et al, 2004;Fosbmder 1994;Kruijver 2000;Step et al, 2009;Thom 2000;Burkitt-Wright 2004;). These latter studies can be interpreted as suggesting that patients seem to value communication at least in part because of what it signals about healthcare providers' attitudes towards them, and thus about the interpersonal aspects of healthcare provider-patient relationships.…”

The Interpersonal Dimension of Online Patient Forums: How Patients Manage Informational and Relational Aspects in Response to Posted Questions

“…As we looked for themes that related to informational and relational aspects of patient communication and therefore operated with some concepts in mind before we started (Braun 2006: 83), the thematic analysis that we conducted was primarily theoretical and deductive as opposed to inductive. However, it was also open to identifying new categories, where the data and existing theory about informational and relational communication (Step et al 2009, Siminoff/Step 2011 were not aligned, as our Results section will illustrate. Based on our initial codes, all the data went through a full coding by both authors, where new codes were added and the initial codes were refi ned.…”

“…Thematic analysis (Braun/Clarke 2006) is employed to identify how patients manage informational and relational aspects in response to online queries. This division of communicative labour into informational and relational aspects that has characterised discussions of the merits of online patient forums, outlined above, has also been identifi ed by Step et al (2009) and Siminoff/Step (2011) as characterising health communication in the traditional clinical encounter. This classifi cation of health communication into informational and relational sub-components was therefore employed as an initial means of structuring the analysis.…”

“…General Medical Council 2013, Step et al 2009) understand by 'informational' the expertise a medical practitioner needs to possess to be able to provide relevant and accurate assessment and advice based on bio-medical aspects of a condition. This includes biomedical knowledge of symptoms and etiology, and knowledge that supports diagnosis, treatment and prevention.…”