Doing their best: strategies used by South African clinicians in working with psychiatric inpatients across a language barrier

Figures & data

Table 1 Summary of clinicians’ communicative strategies

Communication category	Communicative tasks	%	Rank
Facilitation and Patient Activation	Asks for opinion; asks for permission; asks for reassurance; asks for understanding; back-channels; paraphrase, checks for understanding	30.2	1
Data-gathering Lifestyle/psychosocial	Closed question – lifestyle; closed question – psychosocial; open question – lifestyle; open question – psychosocial	27.3	2
Rapport-building – Positive	Laughs, tells jokes; approval – direct; compliment – general; shows agreement, understanding	11	3
Rapport-building – Emotional	Empathy statements; legitimizing statements; concern, worry; reassurance, optimism; partnership statements; self-disclosure.	10.3	4
Data-gathering – Biomedical	Closed question – medical, closed question – therapeutic, closed question – others; open question – medical; open question – therapeutic; open question – others; bid for repetition	7.6	5
Patient Education and Counseling – Lifestyle/psychosocial	Gives information – lifestyle; gives information – psychosocial; counsels – lifestyle/psychosocial	5.6	6
Patient Education and Counseling – Biomedical	Gives information – medical; gives information – therapeutic; gives information – others; counsels – medical/therapeutic	4.7	7
Procedural	Transitions; gives orientation, instructions	2.3	8
Rapport-building – Negative	Disagreement, criticism – direct; disagreement, criticism – general	0.5	9
Rapport-building – Social	Personal remarks	0.5	9