What patients consider to be a ‘good’ doctor, and what doctors consider to be a ‘good’ patient

Abstract

Background: From a patient's point of view, an 'ideal' doctor could be defined as one having personal qualities for interpersonal relationships, technical skills and good intentions. However, doctors' opinions about what it means to be a 'good' patient have not been systematically investigated. Aim: To explore how patients define the characteristics of a 'good' and a 'bad' doctor, and how doctors define a 'good' and a 'bad' patient. Material and Methods: We surveyed a cohort of 107 consecutive patients attending a community teaching hospital in February 2019, who were asked to define the desirable characteristics of a good/ bad doctor. Additionally, a cohort of 115 physicians working at the same hospital was asked to define the desirable characteristics of a good/bad patient. Responses were subjected to content analysis. Simultaneously, an algorithm in Python was used to automatically categorize responses throughout text-mining. Results: The predominant patients' perspective alluded to desirable personal qualities more importantly than proficiency in knowledge and technical skills. Doctors would be satisfied if patients manifested positive personality characteristics, were prone to avoid decisional and personal conflicts, had a high adherence to treatment, and trusted the doctor. The text-mining algorithm was accurate to classify individuals' opinions. Conclusions: Ideally, fusing the skills of the scientist to the reflective capabilities of the medical humanist will fulfill the archetype of what patients consider to be a 'good' doctor. Doctors' preferences reveal a "paternalistic" style, and his/her opinions should be managed carefully to avoid stigmatizing certain patients' behaviors.

Current Status of Intergroup Threats Perceived by Chinese Physicians and Its Association with Organizational Psychology, Behavior, and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Generally, while patients had positive attitudes toward physicians during the anti-COVID-19 pandemic, problems experienced at the physician–patient interaction for physicians included adding procedures to prevent infection, workload, and patients distrust in daily work. To reduce the transmission of COVID-19, hospital policies tended to align with prevention and control policies [ 12 , 13 ], in which patients experienced more difficulties in accessing medical care. This posed various new problems and challenges towards inactive interactions between the physician and patient [ 12 ].…”

The Relationship between Doctor and Patient as an Indicator of the Level of Trust in Medical Care

“…Defining the ideal doctor-patient relationship is quite difficult, as is defining the ideal doctor and patient. In the literature, we read that the ideal physicians should have adequate technical skills, good intentions towards patients, and correct interpersonal relationship characteristics (Borracci, et al, 2020). A proper relationship between the medical personnel and the patients is a key determinant to ensure the proper course of the medical process.…”

The impact of COVID-19 on the doctor-patient relationship in China

“…From the perspective of patients, the main reasons for the contradiction between doctors and patients were difficulty to see a doctor, high medical expenses, high expectations for doctors, low trust, patients' lack of knowledge and poor communication. As a consequence of these findings, it appears that COVID-19 did not resolve the doctor-patient contradiction, but instead sped up the process of resolving it ( 34 ). Cochran's Q -test demonstrated important factors of enhancing DPR were the improvement of medical legislation, good communication, patients' basic medical knowledge, media responsibility and medical insurance ( Figure 1 ) ( 31 , 33 ).…”