- Title
- Improving doctor-patient communication: evaluation of a communication skills training program for psychiatry
- Creator
- Ditton-Phare, Philippa
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Doctor-patient communication is an area of significant focus. For decades, patients experiencing severe mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia), along with their families and carers, have expressed a desire for better communication and information about illness diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Evidence from other medical specialties (e.g., oncology) show that specific and targeted communication skills can be acquired through communication skills training (CST), translate to clinical practice, and improve patient outcomes. However, in psychiatry, and Australia specifically, there are significant gaps in specialist postgraduate CST programs, and it is largely unknown whether psychiatry-specific CST would translate into psychiatric practice or improve experiences for mental health patients. This issue is particularly important to health service providers, medical educators and policy makers, who need to see a return on training investment, in terms of both skill translation to clinical practice and improved experiences for service end-users. This thesis draws together a systematic review of the research literature highlighting the need for psychiatry-specific CST, and reports on the development of an Australia-based psychiatry-specific program called ComPsych. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to build on previous feasibility and utility research for ComPsych and extend this work in a larger sample, and examine how skills learned in the classroom actually transfer to the workplace, what skills were retained over time, and whether patient experiences were positively affected by the training. Results confirmed the utility and feasibility of the program, that process tasks, strategies and certain skills (e.g., agenda setting) were transferred to psychiatric practice, maintained for up to 18 months, and patients’ satisfaction with their treatment and doctors’ patient-centred interactions increased. This thesis demonstrates that investment by Health Services in CST for psychiatrists is beneficial, improves confidence and skills in psychiatry trainees and improves the care experiences for patients.
- Subject
- communication skills training; medical education; psychiatry; mental health; postgraduate psychiatry training; communication education; training evaluation; training translation; thesis by publication
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1423768
- Identifier
- uon:37974
- Rights
- Copyright 2021 Philippa Ditton-Phare
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 13 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 375 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |