Health care professionals' perceptions of seriously ill women.
Physicians, psychologists, and nurses read one of four vignettes describing a woman who had received one of four diagnoses--breast cancer, lung cancer, heart attack, or severe burn--and indicated on the Profile of Mood States (McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1971) how they perceived the woman had been feeling during the past week. They then answered 10 questions about the woman's recovery and about their own anticipated behaviors while interacting with her. A number of differences emerged between professional groups in terms of their expectations for patients regardless of diagnosis. In addition, respondents held different emotional expectations for the patient, based solely on her diagnosis. These results support the need for training health care professionals to recognize psychological distress in, and appropriately refer, seriously ill women.
Hardin
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Hailey
B J
BJ
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008922:Mississippi; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D011586:Psychology, Clinical; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013714:Tennessee