Factors Related to a Communication Style Among Medical House Staff

Abstract

This study reports on some factors related to scores on a recently developed pencil-and paper measure of communication style among physicians in training. High scores on this measure (the Facilitating Response Index) indicate a greater preference by the responded to explore or clarify the thoughts or feelings of the patient in a nondirective, open-ended fashion. Higher scores were attained by physicians who had been exposed to interpersonal skills training, who were evaluated by their teachers as being more clinically competent, who planned to enter private practice sometime to the future and whose patients were less likely to fail to show up for follow-up appointments without first calling to cancel.