 Female doctors are better than their male counterparts at breaking bad news to patients, a study has suggested.
Mock consultations using actors were videotaped by psychologists from the Universities of Coventry, Warwick and Leicester. They found that male doctors were more likely to deliver the bad news in an abrupt style and include the patient in discussions about treatment. The study's authors say that more training may be needed in future. Hospital doctors in the past have received little training in the correct techniques for telling a patient about a serious illness - most of their expertise comes from experience. The modern suggestion is that rather than simply delivering the news and telling the patient what treatment would follow - and its likely outcome - the consultation should be "patient-centred". This means that there should be full opportunity for the patient to discuss fears and concerns. It has always been suspected that women typically have a more "empathic" approach - which is better suited to this kind of consultation, while many men are more likely to want to "stick to the facts". The research, presented at the British Psychological Society's conference, backs this up. The verbal behaviour and body language of 32 male and 12 female doctors taking part in videotaped mock consultations was examined by psychologists. The research suggested that women doctors had "superior communication skills". Sheila Bonas, from the University of Leicester, said that even with a relatively small number of interviews, the differences were significant. She said: "We did not find that every female doctor had better communication skills than every male doctor, and we wouldn't like to suggest this. "However, it's possible that some male doctors might benefit from a little extra training on this issue." She said that some patients actually preferred the more abrupt style of consultation - but that a modern doctor should be able to spot this and make the necessary adjustments to his or her approach. (Agencies) | 研究表明：在告訴病人壞消息時(shí)，女醫(yī)生比男醫(yī)生做得更好。 考文垂、華威和萊斯特大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家們拍攝了由演員模擬的醫(yī)生會(huì)診。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)男醫(yī)生比較容易把壞消息直截了當(dāng)?shù)馗嬖V患者，并且和病人一起討論治療的情況。 該研究的負(fù)責(zé)人說(shuō)將來(lái)要加強(qiáng)在這方面的培訓(xùn)。 過(guò)去，醫(yī)院的醫(yī)生很少接受此類培訓(xùn)，即運(yùn)用正確的技巧向重病患者講述病情——他們?cè)谶@方面的知識(shí)大部分來(lái)自經(jīng)驗(yàn)。 現(xiàn)在建議醫(yī)生不要簡(jiǎn)單地向病人傳達(dá)病情和如何治療，以及可能的結(jié)果，而應(yīng)該“以病人為中心”進(jìn)行會(huì)診。 這就意味著病人應(yīng)該有足夠的機(jī)會(huì)來(lái)討論他的恐懼和擔(dān)心。 一直以來(lái)，人們覺(jué)得較多的“感情”投入是女性所特有的，這一特點(diǎn)更適用于這種會(huì)診，而許多男性比較容易“實(shí)話實(shí)說(shuō)”。 英國(guó)心理學(xué)會(huì)大會(huì)上提出的研究支持這種猜測(cè)。 心理學(xué)家分析了參加模擬會(huì)診錄像的32位男醫(yī)生和12位女醫(yī)生的口頭表達(dá)和肢體語(yǔ)言。研究表明女醫(yī)生有“突出的溝通技巧”。 來(lái)自萊斯特大學(xué)的希拉·博納說(shuō)即使從少數(shù)幾次面談來(lái)看，差異也是很明顯的。 她說(shuō)：“我們并沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)每一個(gè)女醫(yī)生都比男醫(yī)生更有溝通技巧。我們也不想做出這樣的暗示?！?/p> “然而，有些男醫(yī)生可能會(huì)從這方面的一些培訓(xùn)中獲益。” 她說(shuō)確實(shí)也有一些病人喜歡更直接的會(huì)診方式--但是一名現(xiàn)代的醫(yī)生，應(yīng)該能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn)，并在會(huì)診時(shí)做出必要的調(diào)整。 （中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2003-09-10 01:00
