Critical physician behaviors in the formation of a good physician-patient relationship: Concept mapping the perspective of patients with chronic conditions.

OBJECTIVE: A robust physician-patient relationship has been linked to better health outcomes for a range of chronic conditions. Our study aimed to identify physician behaviors patients consider contribute to good physician-patient relationships. METHOD: Fifty patients with a chronic condition and a self-reported good physician-patient relationship were interviewed using the Critical Incidents technique and asked to describe observable behaviors that contributed to their good physician-patient relationship. A sub-sample of 30 participants rated the importance of each behavior and sorted them into self-labelled, mutually exclusive, and conceptually homogenous categories. Multivariate concept mapping with hierarchal cluster analysis was performed. RESULTS: Patients reported 65 behaviors, which were grouped into six overarching domains: valuing the whole person, investigation and future planning, collaboration and empowerment, validation and emotional support, politeness and courtesy, and professionalism. CONCLUSION: Results indicate patients with chronic conditions have a broader conceptualization and identified additional behaviors that reflect components of the physician-patient relationship than has been identified in researcher and practitioner based models. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Practitioners could utilize these concrete behaviors when forming relationships with their patients. These behaviors could also be incorporated into a tool designed to teach and assess the physician-patient relationship.

Development of the eTAP: A brief measure of attitudes and process in e-interventions for mental health.

BACKGROUND: Considerable evidence supports the efficacy of e-interventions for mental health treatment and support. However, client engagement and adherence to these interventions are less than optimal and remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study was to develop and investigate the psychometric properties of the e-Therapy Attitudes and Process questionnaire (eTAP). Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the eTAP was designed to measure factors related to client engagement in e-interventions for mental health. METHODS: Participants were 220 adults who reported current use of an e-intervention for mental health support. Participants completed the eTAP and related measures, with a subsample of 49 participants completing a one-week follow up assessment. RESULTS: A 16-item version of the eTAP produced a clear four-factor structure, explaining 70.25% of variance. The factors were consistent with the TPB, namely, Intention, Subjective Norm, Attitudes, and Perceived Behavioural Control. Internal consistency of the total and subscales was high, and adequate to good one-week test retest reliability was found. Convergent and divergent validity of the total and subscales was supported, as was the predictive validity. Specifically, eTAP Intentions correctly predicted engagement in e-interventions with 84% accuracy and non-engagement with 74% accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: The eTAP was developed as a measure of factors related to engagement and adherence with e-interventions for mental health. Psychometric investigation supported the validity and reliability of the eTAP. The eTAP may be a valuable tool to understand, predict, and guide interventions to increase engagement and adherence to e-interventions for mental health.