Self-reported professional practice and cognition related to doctor-patient relationship among clinical doctors

Objective To explore the status quo of doctor-patient relationship (DPR) and its related professional practice from the view point of clinical doctors and to provide evidences for establishing harmonious DPR.Methods A face-to-face interview with a self-designed questionnaire was conducted among 1 320 clinical doctors selected from 32 grade Ⅱ or Ⅲ hospitals in Guangdong province with stratified random sampling in August 2014.SPSS 17.0 was used in data analyses.Results Of the doctors surveyed,78.10% considered that DPR was at a general level and 47.30% evaluated themselve's medical service being in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.The ratios of the doctors reporting good personal professional practice were 80.00% in qualified medical service,74.40% in humanistic care,85.00% in doctor-patient communication,78.50% in ethnic management,70.10% in therapeutic suggestion,75.00% in psychological communication,and 72.35% in emotion control,respectively.There were 58.90% of the doctors considering that both doctors and patients are responsible for the stressed DPR,54.40% reporting the experience of aggression towards medical staff,29.90% reporting excessive medication,43.30 reporting medication for the purpose of self-protection,and 66.50% reporting concerns on economic issues.The doctors with senior professional tiles awarded significantly higher scores for overall DPR (3.89±0.92 vs.3.59±0.95),medical service in accordance with relevant laws and regulations (3.23±1.06 vs.2.37±0.76),quality of medical service (3.96±0.79 vs.3.58±0.73),and humanistic care (3.68±0.78 vs.3.40±0.73) compared to the doctors with junior or intermediate titles (P<0.05 for all);compared to the doctors working in surgery or obstetrics,the doctors working in other departments awarded significantly higher scores for overall DPR (3.82±0.94 vs.3.56±0.91),doctor-patient communication (4.24±0.63 vs.4.01±0.56),ethnic management (4.13±0.67 vs.3.92±0.65),therapeutic suggestion (2.87±0.83 vs.2.66±0.83),psychological communication (3.78±0.58 vs.3.42±0.80),and emotion control (3.77±0.68 vs.3.13±0.86)(P<0.05 for all).Conclusion Major part of clinical doctors in Guangdong province can provide good medical service although the overall evaluation on current doctor-patient relationship is generally low and negative attitude,self protection,and material concern in relation to doctor-patient relationship exist among the doctors.