Physiotherapist-Patient Interaction: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Eliciting main concerns of the patients is defined as determining a patient's agenda. Setting a patient's agenda is extremely important for planning patient-centered care and planning individualized rehabilitation program. This study aimed to describe agenda elicitation in rehabilitation, to determine the frequency of encounters in which physiotherapists elicited the patients with musculoskeletal disorders agenda, the proportion and timing of interrupted answers.

Methods: This research is a qualitative study which has three steps systematic analysis has carried out. In the first phase, 137 clinical encounters and seven blinded physiotherapists were included in this study. In the second phase, the first physiotherapist-patient interaction, including open and closed-ended questions, were asked by physiotherapists, was recorded. In the third phase, thematic analysis of the elicitation of the patient agenda characteristics was performed.

Results: Physiotherapists elicited the patient's agenda in 76.60% of clinical encounters. In those encounters in which physiotherapists elicited patient concerns, the clinician interrupted the patient after a median of 14.60 seconds (min-max, 1 to 120 seconds). In the un-interrupted encounters in which physiotherapists elicited patient concerns, the patients with musculoskeletal disorders were stated their agenda in 47.70 +/- 35.70 seconds.

Conclusion: In general, most of the physiotherapists emphasize to elicit the patient's agenda; however, they interrupt the patient's expression significantly sooner. Eventually, the failure to elicit the patient's agenda inhibits evaluating patients' needs, and this would lead to failure in planning the rehabilitation program based on individual needs.