Towards patient-centred communication: an observational study of supervised audiology student-patient hearing assessments

Abstract

Objective: This study has two interconnected aims. The first was to better understand how audiology students co-construct hearing assessments with patients while supervised by a clinical educator. The second was to investigate how students’ communication aligns with principles of patient-centred communication.

Study Sample: Twenty-three final year audiology students from two Australian universities participated in the study.

Results: The supervised student-patient hearing appointments were video-recorded and transcribed. Genre analysis, a form of discourse analysis, was carried out to identify the structure and communication patterns. The six-function model of medical communication was adopted as an analytical framework to map students’ patient-centred communication. The findings showed generic structure of the hearing assessments were the main stages of taking a history, providing a diagnosis, and initiating management plans. For patient-centred communication functions, students demonstrated their ability to foster the relationship and gather information. The communication functions of decision-making, enablement, and responding to patients’ emotions were rarely observed. A significant relationship was found between clinical educators’ interjection as a function of students’ patient-centred communication tendencies.

Conclusion: To enhance students’ patient-centred communication, teaching should include explaining and planning as well as addressing additional aspects of patient-centred communication. Support of clinical educators is needed to optimise students’ communication skills learning.

Keywords:

• Patient-centred communication
• clinical education
• clinical communication
• discourse analysis
• audiology
• students

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank all participants of the study. Further, we wish to acknowledge all the clinical managers and university staff who assisted in the study. The authors acknowledge the financial support of the HEARing CRC, established under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program. The CRC Program supports industry-led collaborations between industry, researchers and the community.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.