School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Med Teach. 2010;32(2):136-40. doi: 10.3109/01421590903196987.
The aim was to examine the utility of the laddering interview technique to investigate complex issues in medical education, such as professionalism.
The laddering technique was used to identify examples of professional behaviour associated with the ideal medical doctor, and to explain why participants thought these behaviours were important. Three groups were interviewed: doctors (n = 30), first-year medical students (n = 31) and patients (n = 33).
All groups identified characteristics associated with a 'communication and interpersonal skills' theme. Data suggested the essence of the doctor-patient interaction was shared by the groups, with varying later emphases due to their different perspectives. Additionally, Doctors and Students generated characteristics associated with 'team-working' and 'competence' themes; Doctors' conceptualization of each theme was more detailed. Positive and negative impacts of Doctor's professional behaviour on the patient, doctor and the wider medical arena were also identified.
Use of laddering resulted in data-rich results for each of the three stakeholder groups, illustrating shared and divergent preferences as to the preferred characteristics of a medical doctor and effects of successful and less-successful doctor-patient interactions. The identified characteristics are relevant to the area under investigation and salient to these key stakeholders.
旨在探讨阶梯访谈技术在医学教育等复杂问题研究中的应用，例如职业道德。
采用阶梯访谈技术，确定与理想医生相关的职业行为示例，并解释参与者认为这些行为重要的原因。访谈了三组人群：医生（n=30）、一年级医学生（n=31）和患者（n=33）。
所有组都确定了与“沟通和人际交往技巧”主题相关的特征。数据表明，由于不同的视角，这些组之间存在着共同的医患互动本质，但随后的重点有所不同。此外，医生和学生还提出了与“团队合作”和“能力”主题相关的特征；医生对每个主题的概念化更为详细。还确定了医生的专业行为对患者、医生和更广泛的医疗领域的积极和消极影响。
使用阶梯访谈为这三个利益相关者群体中的每一个都产生了丰富的数据，说明了他们对理想医生的特征和成功与不成功的医患互动的偏好存在共同点和差异。所确定的特征与研究领域相关，也是这些关键利益相关者所关注的。
