Evaluation of the Relationship Between the Communication Skills of Family Physicians and their Approach to the Patient

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the level of communication skills of physicians working in family health centers who attended family medicine 1st stage adaptation training, and to evaluate the relationship between their approach to patients and their communication skills. It was also investigated whether communication skills made a significant difference according to some socio-demographic, physician and patient-related variables.

Methods: The population of the study consisted of all the physicians who participated in the trainings for family physicians organized by the Public Health Institution between March 2015 and March 2016 in the province of Ankara, and 745 physicians were included in the study. The physicians were interviewed using a questionnaire form. In the study, the question form created by the researcher, and the Korkut Communication Scale containing 20 expressions were used. Kolmogorov Smirnov, Histogram, Independent samples t test, ANOVA, Games-Howell or, Tukey post hoc tests and Spearman rho correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. SPSS.23 program was used in all analyzes and p <0.05 value was accepted as the level of significance.

Results: This study showed that the communication skills of family physicians were quite high (X: 100.14). When communication skills scores are compared with some socio-demographic variables; It does not differ significantly with variables such as working time, gender, economic status, marital status, number of children (> 0.05), but it was found that it significantly differ according to age, physicians’ participation in social activities, whether they experience difficulties in their daily relationships with other people, and whether or not they have communication problems with patients and their families (p <.001).

Conclusion: Although physicians’ current communication skills are high, it is recommended to focus on practical training for communication difficulties and effective communication techniques in training programs, starting from pre-graduation.