Strategies in interviewing of patients: linguistic tools for assertive communication and empathy in breaking bad news
Abstract
The study is a presentation of a research project that seeks to identify key linguistic tools through the applied linguistic and psychological analysis of doctor-patient interactions, the development of which enhances the doctor's ability to cooperate and empathize with the patient, thus facilitating the recovery. After several weeks of theoretical training and practice, the medical students involved in the study were assigned the task of breaking bad news to the patient acting simulator in a simulated situation. During the observed interactions, the communication process focused on the emergence and development of empathy. To measure this, we used an empathy scale. During the study, following the simulated doctor-patient interaction, the participants playing the role of the patient completed the empathy scale that was designed to measure how empathic a dialogue was in a given communication situation. The original Empathy Scale was developed in English, ‘The Patient-Professional Interaction Questionnaire (PPIQ) to Assess Patient Centered Care from the Patient’s Perspective’ (Casu – Sommaruga – Gremigni, 2018). Since this test effectively measures empathic communication during doctor-patient interaction and is available in both Hungarian and English, it is very useful for interviewing simulated patients in English and Hungarian courses. This study investigated the interactions of medical students in the English program.
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