The evaluation of the degree of fulfilment of cancer patients’ expectations toward their doctors

Anna Kornaś, Barbara Bętkowska-Korpała

Abstract


Introduction: Oncologically treated patients are a group that requires complementary, multi-disciplinary medical treatment and support. One of the elements of holistic treatment is medical personnel getting to know the patients’ expectations.

The main goal of this study was to analyse the expectations that patients with cancer have of their doctors. Two layers of these expectations were assessed – expectations currently being realised, and ideal expectations.

Materials and methods: 107 patients with cancer were qualified to this research. 53 of them received chemotherapy, and 54 radiotherapy. This study was cross-sectional. The research tool was a structured questionnaire which included information on sociodemographic data, about cancer within the closest relatives, and an expectation test prepared by Golzweig et al.

Results: In patients’ opinion, currently realised expectations were mostly expressive activities: the possibility to trust a doctor (45% of patients) and the possibility to talk freely (44%). The most frequently declared ideal expectations were the possibility to trust a doctor (67%) and tohave the treatment plan explained (63%). Ideal expectations were studied with cluster analysis. Two groups were selected. The first of them comprised patients with a higher expectation level (n = 47), and the second were patients with a lower expectation level of their doctors (n = 53). Higher expectations were essentially more often declared by women, who were 62.5% of respondents in the first group (p = 0.003). An important, monotonic relation was observed between level of education and higher expectations (p = 0.02).

Conclusions: Patients treated oncologically expect emotional support and full information about their illness and treatment from their doctors. A higher level of expectations was declared by women, and both sexes with higher education.


Keywords


patients’ expectations; physician–patient relations; cancer patients

Full Text:

PDF (Język Polski)

References


Ware JE Jr, Snyder MK, Wright WR, Davies AR. Defining and measuring patient satisfaction with medical care. Eval Program Plann 1983;6:247-63.

Licina P, Johnston M, Ewing L, Mark P. Patient expectations, outcomes and satisfaction: related, relevant or redundant? Evid Based Spine Care J 2012;3(4):13-9. doi: 10.1055/s-0032-1328138.

Kurpas D, Steciwko A. Satysfakcja pacjenta jako główny wskaźnik poziomu jakości podstawowej opieki zdrowotnej. Przegl Lek 2005;62(12):1546-51.

Izrael J. Socjopsychiczne środowisko szpitala. In: Sokołowska M, editor. Badania socjologiczne w medycynie. Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza; 1969.

Korsch BM, Gozzi EK, Francis V. Gaps in doctor–patient communication. Doctor–patient interaction and patient satisfaction. Pediatrics 1968;42(5):855-71.

Bętkowska-Korpała B, Gierowski JK. Psychologia lekarska a profesjonalny kontakt lekarza z pacjentem. In: Bętkowska-Korpała B, Gierowski JK, editors.

Psychologia lekarska w leczeniu chorych somatycznie. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego; 2007. p. 7-15.

Bowling A, Rowe G, Lambert N, Waddington M, Mahtani KR, Kenten C, et al. The measurement of patients’ expectations for health care: a review and psychometric testing of a measure of patients expectations. Health Technol Assess 2012;16(30): i-xii,1-509. doi: 10.3310/hta16300.

Kornaś A, Bętkowska-Korpała B. Oczekiwania pacjentów onkologicznych wobec lekarzy. Przegl Lek 2016;73(11):841-4.

Goldzweig G, Meirovitz A, Hubert A, Brenner B, Walach N, Perry S, et al. Meeting expectations of patients with cancer: relationship between patient satisfaction, depression, and coping. J Clin Oncol 2010;28(9):1560-5.

Goldzweig G, Abramovitch A, Brenner B, Perry S, Peretz T, Baider L, et al. Expectations and level of satisfaction of patients and their physicians: concordance and discrepancies. Psychosomatics 2015;50(5):521-9.

Chiu T, Fang D, Chen J, Wang Y, Jeris C. A robust and scalable clustering algorithm for mixed type attributes in large database environment. In: Proc 2001 Int Conf on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD’01). San Francisco (CA); 2001. p 263-8.

Agresti A. An introduction to categorical data analysis. 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons; 2007. doi: 10.1002/0470114754.

Juczyński Z. Narzędzia pomiaru w promocji i psychologii zdrowia. Warszawa: Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych Polskiego Towarzystwa Psychologicznego; 2001.

Zieniuk A. Oczekiwania pacjenta onkologicznego wobec personelu medycznego. Psychoonkologia 2009;1-2:17-27.

Cieślak K, Pawlukiewicz M, Gołąb D, Konys M, Kuśnierkiewicz M, Kleka P. Styles of coping with stress of cancer in patients treated with radiotherapy and expectations towards medical staff – Practical implications. Rep Pract Oncol Radiother 2013;18(2):61-6. doi: 10.1016/j.rpor.2012.10.006.

Cramer JA. Effect of partial compliance on cardiovascular medication effectiveness. Heart 2002;88(2):203-6.

Britten N, Stevenson FA, Barry CA, Barber N, Bradley CP. Misunderstandings in prescribing decisions in general practice: qualitative study. BMJ 2000;320(7233):484-8.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.21164/pomjlifesci.320

Copyright (c) 2017 Anna Kornaś, Barbara Bętkowska-Korpała

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/pl/