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An instrument for evaluating medical interview in general practice: the VR-MICS/D (Verona-Medical Interview Classification System/Doctor)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2011

Anna Saltini ,
Davide Cappellari ,
Paola Cellerino ,
Lidia Del Piccolo  and
Christa Zimmermann
Anna Saltini*
Affiliation:
Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona
Davide Cappellari
Affiliation:
Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona
Paola Cellerino
Affiliation:
Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona
Lidia Del Piccolo
Affiliation:
Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona
Christa Zimmermann
Affiliation:
Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona
*
Indirizzo per la corrispondenza: Dr.ssa A. Saltini, Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Ospedale Policlinico, 37134 Verona. Fax +39 — 045-585.871 E-mail: [email protected]
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Summary

Objective - To assess the reliability of the VR-MICS/D (Verona-Medical Interview Classification System/Doctor) and to identify the verbal behaviour by general practitioners in interviews conducted with primary care attenders with medical complaints and emotional distress. Setting - Two general practices in South-Verona. Sample - 100 primary care patients attending for a new illness episode with a GHQ-12 score > 3. The five participating GPs contributed each with 20 audiotaped interviews of 10 patients judged by GP as emotionally distressed and of 10 judged without emotional distress. Main outcome measures — The VR-MICS/D classifies GPs' verbal behaviour during the medical interview into 16 categories in terms of form (question or statement) and content and allows to assess their interview skills. Procedure - Two raters classified 30 interviews (15 with patients judged by their GP as emotionally distressed and 15 with patients judged without emotional distress). Having established satisfactory reliability, the overall verbal performance, based on 100 interviews, was assessed and GPs' verbal behaviours with patients judged as emotionally distressed was compared with that adopted with patients judged without emotional distress. Results - The reliability was satisfactory (Kappa 0.93). Percentage agreements for categories varied between 78.2% and 96.4%. The most frequent verbal behaviours were closed ended questions and information giving (58% of a total of 5522 classified verbal units). Interviews with patients judged as emotional distressed contained a greater number of psychological and psychosocial contents, facilitating comments and clarifications. These differences, however, were small, despite their statistical significance. Conclusions - The VR-MICS/D is a reliable measure for describing GPs' verbal behaviour during the interview with emotional distressed patients. The interview style of the GPs in this study was similar to that reported in the literature for GPs without formal training in communication skills and was characterised by a prevalently doctor-centred approach. This approach, particularly with emotional distressed patients, has severe limitations and underlines the necessity of the introduction of communication skills training.

Riassunto

Scopo - Valutare l'attendibilita del VR-MICS/D (Verona-Medical Interview Classification Systeml/Doctor) e identificare gli interventi adottati dai medici di medicina generale durante la conduzione dell'intervista con pazienti con disturbi organici e disagio emotivo. Setting - Lo studio e stato condotto nel territorio di Verona-Sud, presso due ambulatori di Medicina Generale. Campione - 100 pazienti che hanno consultato i medici per un problema di salute nuovo e che hanno riportato al GHQ-12 un punteggio > 3. I cinque medici coinvolti nello studio hanno contribuito ciascuno con 20 interviste audioregistrate (10 condotte con pazienti giudicati con disagio emotivo e 10 condotte con pazienti senza disagio emotivo, secondo il giudizio dei medici). Principali misure utilizzate — Il VR-MICS/D consente di classificare il comportamento verbale adottato dal medico durante la conduzione dell'intervista e consente di valutarne lo stile. Lo strumento à costituito da 16 categorie definite in base a formulazione (domanda, affermazdone) e contenuto. Procedura - Due rater hanno classificato 30 interviste (15 condotte con pazienti giudicati dai medici con disagio emotivo e 15 condotte con pazienti senza disagio emotivo, secondo il giudizio dei medici). Dopo aver verificato l'attendibilita del VR-MICS/D, e stata valutata la performance dei medici (classificazione delle 100 interviste) e sono stati confrontati i comportamenti verbali adottati con pazienti giudicati con disagio emotivo e senza disagio, secondo il giudizio dei medici. Risultati - Il VR-MICS/D ha dimostrato una buona attendibilita (Kappa di Cohen 0.93). La percentuale di accordo delle categorie è compresa tra 78.2% e 96.4%. I comportamenti verbali piu frequenti sono «domande chiuse» e «dare informazioni» (55.0% sul totale dei comportamenti verbali classificati n = 5522). Ciò che contraddistingue le interviste condotte con pazienti giudicati dai medici con disagio emotivo sono gli specifici contenuti affrontati (psicologico e psicosociale) e i commenti di chiarificazione e di facilitazione. Queste differenze non sono comunque marcate, nonostante siano statisticamente significative. Conclusioni - Il VR-MICS/D è uno strumento attendibile che permette di classificare il comportamento verbale adottato dai medici durante la conduzione delle interviste con pazienti con disagio emotivo. Lo stile di intervista dei medici che hanno partecipato allo studio e simile a quello descritto in letteratura per i medici che non hanno ricevuto una formazione alle tecniche comunicative ed è caratterizzato da un approccio essenzialmente centrato sul medico e sulle sue conoscenze. Questo tipo di approccio, in particolare con pazienti con disagio emotivo, comporta notevoli limitazioni ed evidenzia la necessita di introdurre interventi di formazione alle tecniche di intervista.

Keywords

comunicazione medico-pazienteclassificazione dell'intervista medicadisagio emotivodoctor-patient communicationmedical interview classificationemotional distress
Type
Articles
Information
Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , December 1998 , pp. 210 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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