How patient-centred am I? A new method to measure physicians' patient-centredness.
OBJECTIVE
To describe a new method to determine physicians' self-perceived degree of patient-centredness. A pilot study combining qualitative and quantitative methods.


METHODS
Forty-one general practitioners (GPs) answered a questionnaire consisting of three open-ended questions about their view of the consultation and by choosing among 28 roles of the physician in the physician-patient relationship. Twenty of the GPs had participated in Balint groups while 21 had had no access to Balint group. Patient-centredness is central to Balint groups and consequently Balint group participants would be expected to be patient-centred.


RESULTS
The answers to the two parts were divided into three groups each, patient-centred, non-patient-centred and intermediary, and analysed statistically. Significantly more Balint participants were patient-centred than the reference group.


CONCLUSIONS
The instrument describes physicians' self-perceptions of their patient-centredness and can distinguish a group of patient-centred physicians from a group of non-patient-centred physicians.


CONCLUSIONS
The instrument can be useful to evaluate educational programmes and detect decline in patient-centredness as early sign of burnout.
Kjeldmand
Dorte
D
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Section for Health Services Research, University of Uppsala, Sweden. kjeldmand@telia.com
Holmström
Inger
I
Rosenqvist
Urban
U
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003142:Communication; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000592:standards; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D010819:Physician's Role / Q000523:psychology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013548:Sweden