Responsibility of follow-up regarding medical recommendations in primary care and challenging patients: The perspective of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and administrative staff.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the way healthcare staff describe challenging patients and perceive responsibility for follow-up of patients with chronic conditions. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with 46 healthcare staff (15 primary care physicians/12 nurses/15 administrative staff/4 pharmacists) at 12 clinics in Israel. They were audiotaped, transcribed, and thematically analyzed using Atlas qualitative data analysis software. RESULTS: Participants defined patients as "challenging" either because they are less likely to follow medical recommendations or are felt to overconsume care. Staff believed that patients did not follow medical recommendations because they were indifferent, unaware, in denial about deteriorating medical condition, or fear of the unknown. Participants generally perceived a shared responsibility for follow-up between the staff and the patient. Staff who endorsed closer relationships with staff members expressed empathy toward challenging patients and felt responsible for follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare staff perceive themselves as partially responsible for helping patients follow up with medical recommendations. Cohesive staff relationships may promote higher levels of empathy toward challenging patients and may contribute to helping patients follow up with recommended care. Practice implications To improve follow-up with medical recommendations, there is a need to develop and test interventions to promote more cohesive ties among clinic staff.

Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street": The Vicissitudes of Treating a Difficult Patient.

Taking the liberty of imagining the lawyer in Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener" as narrator/therapist and Bartleby as patient, this article, written with the therapist/reader in mind, traces the vicissitudes of countertransference and speculates on what constitutes a "good enough" therapeutic effort.

[Social care for patients hospitalised in units for difficult patients]. / Prise en charge sociale des patients hospitalisés en unité pour malades difficiles.

The units for difficult patients are secure psychiatric wards that receive mentally ill people who could have committed or have committed dangerous acts. As part of the overall care of these patients, the treatment of their social problems by social workers plays an essential role. These interventions provide the psychosocial benefits necessary for the stabilisation and evolution of these subjects.

[Social care for patients hospitalized in units for difficult patients]. / Accompagnement social des patients hospitalisés en unité pour malades difficiles.

The units for difficult patients are secure psychiatric wards that receive people suffering from mental illnesses with a risk of dangerous behaviour. Within the framework of the global care of these patients, the intervention of social service assistants plays an essential role. The objective is to induce the psychosocial benefits necessary for the stabilization and evolution of these patients.

Managing Challenging Patient Interactions in Breast Imaging.

Managing challenging patient interactions can be a daily stressor for breast imaging radiologists, leading to burnout. This article offers communication and behavioral practices for radiologists that help reduce radiologists' stress during these encounters. Patient scenarios viewed as difficult can vary among radiologists. Radiologists' awareness of their own physical, mental, and emotional states, along with skillful communications, can be cultivated to navigate these interactions and enhance resiliency. Understanding underlying causes of patients' emotional reactions, denial, and anger helps foster empathy and compassion during discussions. When exposed to extremely disruptive, angry, or racially abusive patients, having pre-existing institutional policies to address these behaviors helps direct appropriate responses and guide subsequent actions. These extreme behaviors may catch breast imaging radiologists off guard yet have potentially significant consequences. Rehearsing scripted responses before encounters can help breast imaging radiologists maintain composure in the moment, responding in a calm, nonjudgmental manner, and most effectively contributing to service recovery. However, when challenging patient encounters do trigger difficult emotions in breast imaging radiologists, debriefing with colleagues afterwards and naming the emotion can help the radiologists process their feelings to regain focus for performing clinical duties.

Vexing visits: Variables correlating with physician perceptions of patients as "difficult" and overall enjoyment of their delivery of primary ambulatory care.

All physicians experience some patients described as "difficult." Their prevalence negatively impacts work satisfaction. Prior research identified factors present when physicians perceive patients as difficult. Numerous variables are unrelated to vexing patient visits. Three additive patient characteristics predict difficult encounters: 1) depressive or anxiety comorbidity, 2) polysymptomatic patients, and 3) high symptom severity. The sole physician variable was their score on the Physician Belief Scale (PBS) which quantifies negative attitudes towards psychosocial problems. When all three patient predictors exist, high PBS scorers judge twice as many patients as difficult. Five clinic milieu variables correlated weakly with clinic satisfaction among primary care residents. They are: 1) minimal role conflict, 2) autonomy, 3) collegiality, 4) encouragement of professional growth, and 5) work group loyalty. "Positive affect" was among the strongest physician variables but the author labeled it a confounding variable. Finally, a small "n" QI study conducted in this author's residency explored the role of physician affectivity and identified additional physician characteristics and clinic milieu factors correlating with overall enjoyment of ambulatory clinic practice. Surprisingly, none of the five previously identified clinic milieu variables correlated directly with resident clinic satisfaction. "Supportive staff cohesion" was one milieu variable that correlated significantly with clinic satisfaction. Resident affective characteristics that significantly reduced clinic satisfaction were "hostility" and "negative affectivity." "Joviality" was positively related to clinic satisfaction. While patient variables are uncontrollable, it is plausible that by physicians changing their beliefs and affectivity the percentage of vexing visits could be cut in half improving work satisfaction.

The 'difficult patient' phenomenon in home nursing and 'self-inflicted' illness.

RATIONALE AND AIM: Home nurses work largely alone, and consequently, 'difficult patients' can be challenging for them. Understanding of this phenomenon can have a major impact on the quality of care. The aim is to explore how nurses characterise, relate to and interact with these patients. Why do nurses perceive some patients as difficult and what are the consequences for the patient? What are these patients´ expectations of the nurses and their perceptions of illness? METHODS: An ethnographic study with 30 participant observations of 12 nurses visiting 146 patients was conducted. A total of 6 interviews were made with 4 'difficult patients' and 11 interviews with 5 nurses. FINDINGS: In the nurses' view, the 'difficult patients' had little insight into their illnesses, denied they were ill and were noncompliant. Some nurses had negative feelings about a patient, regarded the patient as too demanding or found the patient´s personal characteristics repulsive. The difficulty lies in the relationship between nurse and patient. Important health problems of some patients remained unrecognised. The nurses regarded the patients' illnesses as self-inflicted. The patients had low expectations of nurses, lacked knowledge about what to expect of them, and their views on their illnesses differed from those of the nurses. Contributing causes of patients becoming difficult for nurses seemed to be different norms and values and the nurses' work situation. CONCLUSION: It is important that nurses communicate their knowledge about the connection between illness and pathogenic social conditions and discuss 'self-inflicted' illness and their role in relation to this. Supervision is suggested. Improved working conditions could lead to fewer 'difficult patients'. STUDY LIMITATIONS: The perspectives of patients should be studied in greater detail.

Unhappy Patients Can Turn into Angry Patients: How to Deal with Both.

Patient satisfaction is the ultimate measure of success in cosmetic facial plastic surgery. A successful outcome depends on patient selection, technical performance, and postoperative care. Patient perception can be influenced by physician-patient interactions. Surgical training focuses on diagnosis-identifying variations in physical condition and treatment. Although these skills are essential to a well-trained and successful facial plastic surgeon, the importance of proper patient selection, management of expectations, and empathetic communication in cosmetic surgery are often overlooked in education and cannot be understated. This article outlines the contributing factors to difficult physician-patient relationships and strategies for mitigating these situations.

[Practice in a unit for difficult patients for students of nursing studies]. / Stage d'étudiants en soins infirmiers dans une unité pour malades difficiles.

Units for difficult patients are secure psychiatric wards for people with mental health disorders who could have or who have displayed dangerous behaviour. In this article, four students in their 3rd year of nursing studies share their experience on such a ward during their practice placement at Cadillac general hospital. Their learning and discovery of nursing care alongside experienced professionals enabled them to develop their competencies and change their perception of psychiatry.

[Melting-Pain Therapy for difficult mental health patients]. / L'activité Melting-pain therapy pour les malades mentaux difficiles.

The nurses in the unit for difficult patients at Cadillac hospital have developed an innovative art therapy concept: Melting-Pain Therapy. In this workshop patients produce a collective piece of art created through participants' individual sessions with a nurse. These patients are exclusively men, suffering mainly from schizophrenia, who have been or who are potentially dangerous. The photographs accompanying this article show some examples of these art brut creations.

Identifying existential concerns as an analytical tool: an eye-opener for the doctor.

Existential concerns manifest themselves emotionally in patients. Emotions tend to be transferred between patient and doctor but the underlying existential concerns may remain hidden and obscure for both. If doctors understand that there are always existential concerns behind patients' inquiries it becomes easier to relate to the patient's feelings in an interested and curious way. Ultimately this benefits both doctors and patients. We have observed five existential human concerns leads to strong emotions (1. death, 2. thrown-ness, 3. aloneness, 4. choosing (the imperative of choice) and 5. meaninglessness (the absence of objective meaning).

Behaviours of healthcare professionals towards difficult patients: A structural equation modelling study.

BACKGROUND: Some patients are stigmatised as difficult patients by healthcare professionals. This phenomenon has great many negative consequences. The behaviours of healthcare professionals towards difficult patients are important. OBJECTIVE: To explore the behaviours of all healthcare professionals towards difficult patients. RESEARCH DESIGN: This study was based on a cross-sectional research design using structural equation modelling. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: Two hundred and fifty-four healthcare professionals were involved in the study in Turkey. 'Participant Information Form' and the 'Healthcare Professionals Behaviour Assessment Questionnaire For Difficult Patient' were used to collect data from participants. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION: Ethical approval was obtained from Gazi University Ethics Committee for the study. Informed consent of the participants in the study was taken and the confidentiality of the participants was ensured. FINDINGS: It was explored that the behaviours of healthcare professionals towards difficult patients were categorised into ethical, supportive and negative. The highest mean score was supportive behaviour and the least mean score was negative. According to structural equation modelling, the most important predictor of difficult encounters was an ethical dimension. One-unit increase in ethical behaviour contributed to 0.92 unit increase in positive patient behaviour. DISCUSSION: Patients generally are perceived as 'difficult patient' by the healthcare professionals, so the patients' treatment and care services are affected negatively due to healthcare professionals' negative beliefs and attitudes. The healthcare professionals should behave supportively towards difficult patients. CONCLUSION: Healthcare professionals should be aware of management strategies in dealing with difficult encounters. The behaviours of healthcare professionals should be improved in a positive way and awareness of ethical dimension of difficult encounters should be increased.

Effects of a Question Prompt Sheet on the Oncologist-Patient Relationship: a Multi-centred Randomised Controlled Trial in Breast Cancer.

This study assessed the effect of a question prompt sheet (QPS) on the oncologist-patient relationship as compared with a question listing (QL). In particular, the differences in difficulties perceived by the oncologist during the consultation and in the patient's experience of the therapeutic aspects of the relationship were assessed. A total of 324 patients with a recent diagnosis of early stage breast cancer were involved in the study. The results showed that 15.7% of patients were perceived as 'difficult' by the oncologists. The proportion of 'difficult' patients varied in the two groups: 20.6% in the QPS group versus 11.8% in the QL group. The results also showed that the higher the difficulty perceived by oncologists, the lower the satisfaction of patients for their relationship with the oncologists during the consultation (r = - .135, p = .033). It is likely that the higher level of difficulty perceived by the oncologist in the QPS group may be connected with the pre-prepared list of evidence-based questions. Further research is needed to understand which components of the interventions, relating to the patient, the oncologist or their interaction, really promote patient participation in cancer setting. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01510964. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01510964.

What makes a difficult patient so difficult? Examining the therapist's experience beyond patient characteristics.

The primary aim of this study is to improve our understanding of therapists' experience of a "difficult patient" and consider the different variables involved in this label. What makes a patient be perceived as difficult by a therapist in public health services? Results of our analysis of 10 qualitative semistructured interviews of therapists working in public health service in Chile indicated that therapists' perceptions of a "difficult patient" depend on variables that go beyond the patient's intrinsic characteristics, including patients' negative attitude toward the therapist and treating team, patients' negative effects on therapists, and a difficult treatment context (e.g., work overload, scarce resources, limited number, and frequency of sessions). We illustrate the interaction of these dimensions and focus on the impact of the treating context on therapists' experience of a "difficult patient" through the case of a therapist working with a patient with complex depression in the public health system of Chile.

What Do Medical Students Do and Want When Caring for "Difficult Patients"?

Phenomenon: Medical students, like physicians, experience negative emotions such as frustration when interacting with some patients, and many of these interactions occur for the first time during clinical clerkships. Students receive preclinical training in the social and behavioral sciences, often including learning about "difficult patient" interactions, yet little is known about their desire for training during clinical education. We explored students' strategies in these difficult clinical interactions, whether they felt prepared by the curriculum, and what support they would have liked. These data inform proposed strategies for supporting clinical learning. Approach: We interviewed 4th-year students about interactions with patients toward whom they felt negative emotions and sought to identify strategies and supports needed in these interactions. Interviews ended when theoretical sufficiency was achieved. We used qualitative content analysis to organize strategies into themes about areas benefiting from curricular supports. We mapped students' desired curricular support examples to cognitive apprenticeship teaching methods-modeling, coaching, reflection, scaffolding, exploration, and articulation-and aligned them with traditional pedagogical techniques. Findings: We interviewed 26 medical students (44 volunteered/180 invited). Their strategies formed five themes: finding empathy (with a subtheme of focusing on social determinants of health), using learned communication approaches, anticipating challenging interactions, seeking support, and considering it an opportunity for more responsibility. Students described ideal clinical teaching, including postinteraction debriefs with an emphasis on validating their emotional reactions and challenges. Students mentioned all cognitive apprenticeship teaching methods, most prominently modeling (observing supervisors in such interactions) and supported oral reflection. They also identified a need for faculty and resident development to enact these teaching methods. Insights: Although students use some learned strategies in interactions in which they feel negative emotions toward patients, they desire more preparation and support during their clinical rotations. Their desires map to traditional pedagogical techniques and to methods of cognitive apprenticeship. Our findings point to the need to use these techniques to enhance clinical learning for students who experience emotionally challenging patient interactions.

Pacientes difíciles o relaciones difíciles en Psiquiatría: Un estudio de casos y controles / Difficult patients or difficult relationships in Psychiatry: A case control study

Resumen Los pacientes difíciles en Psiquiatría imponen un trabajo intenso a los profesionales y grupos de trabajo de salud mental. Las estadísticas muestran que la frecuencia puede alcanzar hasta un tercio de los pacientes habiendo sido estudiados mayormente en Salud Mental y Atención Primaria. Mediante un estudio de casos y controles nos propusimos caracterizar los pacientes difíciles y conocer los factores involucrados en las diferencias observadas. Se obtuvo una muestra por conveniencia. Se seleccionaron dos controles por cada caso, pareados por rango de edad y sexo. Hipótesis: Características de personalidad de los pacientes permiten explicar las diferencias observadas en la frecuencia de presentación de los casos difíciles en Psiquiatría. Resultados: No se observaron diferencias significativas en la distribución por edad, sexo, estado civil, escolaridad tiempo de tratamiento y en los diagnósticos clínicos (eje I del DSM), pero sí fueron significativas las diferencias en el número de medicamentos utilizados, el tiempo en psicoterapia, la intervención social y la presencia de trastornos de la personalidad, siendo más frecuentes en los casos (pacientes difíciles) por lo que se confirma la hipótesis de trabajo. Discusión: Se discute el sentido de calificar paciente difícil, considerando que se trata más bien de "situaciones difíciles". Estas situaciones se observaron con mayor frecuencia ante la presencia de Trastornos de la Personalidad. Se analiza las implicancias al abordar este tipo de condiciones. A pesar de la importancia del problema, el tema ha sido poco estudiado en nuestro medio.

Difficult patients involve a great deal of work to professionals and Mental Health teams. Epidemiological data show that the rate is up to one third of the patients having been mostly studied in Mental Health and Primary Care. Using a case control design the objective of this study was to characterize difficult patients and the factors that could explain the differences observed. A convenience sample was chosen. Two controls were taken by each case. Controls were paired by sex and age. Hypothesis: Characteristics of personality of patients, allow us to explain the differences observed in difficult patients in Psychiatry. Results: There were no significant differences according by age, sex, marital status, educational level, time span of treatment and clinical diagnosis, but significant differences were observed in the number of medications taken, time span in psychotherapy, social work assistance and personality disorders, being more frequent in difficult patients. Discussion: It´s discussed the convenience of the expression difficult patient, rather than difficult situation considering the review of research and the clinical experience. Difficult situations are found more frequently in personality disorders. It´s analyzed the implications when dealing with this sort of conditions. Although the importance of this topic, it has been poorly studied in this milieu.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Rochester Forensic Assertive Community Treatment Model.

OBJECTIVE: Forensic assertive community treatment (FACT) is an adaptation of the assertive community treatment model and is designed to serve justice-involved adults with serious mental illness. This study compared the effectiveness of a standardized FACT model and enhanced treatment as usual in reducing jail and hospital use and in promoting engagement in outpatient mental health services. METHODS: Seventy adults with psychotic disorders who were arrested for misdemeanor crimes and who were eligible for conditional discharge were recruited from the Monroe County, New York, court system. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either FACT (N=35) or enhanced treatment as usual (N=35) for one year. Criminal justice and mental health service utilization outcomes were measured by using state and county databases. RESULTS: Forty-nine participants (70%) completed the full one-year intervention period. Nineteen (27%) were removed early by judicial order, one was removed by county health authorities, and one died of a medical illness. Intent-to-treat analysis for all 70 participants showed that those receiving the FACT intervention had fewer mean±SD convictions (.4±.7 versus .9±1.3, p=.023), fewer mean days in jail (21.5±25.9 versus 43.5±59.2, p=.025), fewer mean days in the hospital (4.4±15.1 versus 23.8±64.2, p=.025), and more mean days in outpatient mental health treatment (305.5±92.1 versus 169.4±139.6, p<.001) compared with participants who received treatment as usual. CONCLUSIONS: The Rochester FACT model was associated with fewer convictions for new crimes, less time in jail and hospitals, and more time in outpatient treatment among justice-involved adults with psychotic disorders compared with treatment as usual.