 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，女醫(yī)生比男醫(yī)生做得更好。 考文垂、華威和萊斯特大學的心理學家們拍攝了由演員模擬的醫(yī)生會診。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)男醫(yī)生比較容易把壞消息直截了當?shù)馗嬖V患者，并且和病人一起討論治療的情況。 該研究的負責人說將來要加強在這方面的培訓。 過去，醫(yī)院的醫(yī)生很少接受此類培訓，即運用正確的技巧向重病患者講述病情——他們在這方面的知識大部分來自經(jīng)驗。 現(xiàn)在建議醫(yī)生不要簡單地向病人傳達病情和如何治療，以及可能的結(jié)果，而應該“以病人為中心”進行會診。 這就意味著病人應該有足夠的機會來討論他的恐懼和擔心。 一直以來，人們覺得較多的“感情”投入是女性所特有的，這一特點更適用于這種會診，而許多男性比較容易“實話實說”。 英國心理學會大會上提出的研究支持這種猜測。 心理學家分析了參加模擬會診錄像的32位男醫(yī)生和12位女醫(yī)生的口頭表達和肢體語言。研究表明女醫(yī)生有“突出的溝通技巧”。 來自萊斯特大學的希拉·博納說即使從少數(shù)幾次面談來看，差異也是很明顯的。 她說：“我們并沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)每一個女醫(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。” “然而，有些男醫(yī)生可能會從這方面的一些培訓中獲益。” 她說確實也有一些病人喜歡更直接的會診方式--但是一名現(xiàn)代的醫(yī)生，應該能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)這一點，并在會診時做出必要的調(diào)整。 （中國日報網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2003-09-10 01:00
