Department of Family Medicine, Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, School of Medicine University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
Eur J Gen Pract. 2011 Sep;17(3):153-9. doi: 10.3109/13814788.2011.576339. Epub 2011 Jun 27.
Expression of strong emotions by patients is not a rare event in medical practice, however, there are few studies describing general practitioner (GP) communication with a crying patient.
The aim of this study was to describe GP behaviour with a patient who cries in a family practice setting.
A semi-qualitative study was conducted on 127 Croatian GP trainees, 83.5% female, and 16.5% male. The study method used was the 'critical incident technique.' GP trainees described their recent experience with patients who cried in front of them. Textual data were explored inductively using content analysis to generate categories and explanations.
All 127 (100.0%) GP trainees initially let patients cry, giving them verbal (81.9%) and/or nonverbal support (25.9%). GP trainees (69.3%) encouraged their patients to verbalize and to describe the problem. Most GP trainees (87.4%) tried to establish mutual problem understanding. Approximately half of the GP trainees (55.1%) made a joint management plan. A minor group (14.2%) tried to maintain contact with the patient by arranging follow-up appointments. The vast majority of GP trainees shared their patient's emotion of sadness (92.9%). Some GP trainees were caught unaware or unprepared for patient's crying and reacted awkwardly (4.7%), some were indifferent (3.9%) or even felt guilty (3.1%).
GP trainees' patterns of communication with crying patients can be described in five steps: (a) let the patient cry; (b) verbalization of emotions and facilitation to express the problem; (c) mutual understanding and solution finding; (d) evaluation--maintaining contact; and (e) personal experience of great emotional effort.
在医疗实践中，患者表达强烈的情绪并不是罕见的事件，但描述全科医生（GP）与哭泣患者沟通的研究很少。
本研究旨在描述家庭实践环境中 GP 与哭泣患者的沟通行为。
对 127 名克罗地亚全科医生实习生进行了一项半定性研究，其中 83.5%为女性，16.5%为男性。研究方法使用“关键事件技术”。全科医生实习生描述了他们最近与在他们面前哭泣的患者的经历。使用内容分析对文本数据进行归纳探索，以生成类别和解释。
所有 127 名（100.0%）全科医生实习生最初让患者哭泣，给予他们口头（81.9%）和/或非口头支持（25.9%）。全科医生实习生（69.3%）鼓励患者表达并描述问题。大多数全科医生实习生（87.4%）试图建立共同的问题理解。大约一半的全科医生实习生（55.1%）制定了联合管理计划。一小部分（14.2%）尝试通过安排随访预约来维持与患者的联系。绝大多数全科医生实习生（92.9%）分享了患者的悲伤情绪。一些全科医生实习生感到惊讶或没有准备好应对患者的哭泣，反应尴尬（4.7%），一些则漠不关心（3.9%）甚至感到内疚（3.1%）。
可以用五个步骤描述全科医生实习生与哭泣患者的沟通模式：（a）让患者哭泣；（b）情感表达和促进表达问题；（c）相互理解和寻找解决方案；（d）评估-保持联系；（e）个人经历巨大的情感努力。
