Physicians’ Religious Topic Avoidance during Clinical Interactions
Date
2017-05
Authors
Villagran, Melinda
MacArthur, Brenda L.
Lee, Lauren E.
Ledford, Christy J. W.
Canzona, Mollie R.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Abstract
Religious and spiritual (R/S) conversations at the end-of-life function to help patients and their families find comfort in difficult circumstances. Physicians who feel uncertain about how to discuss topics related to religious beliefs may seek to avoid R/S conversations with their patients. This study utilized a two-group objective structured clinical examination with a standardized patient to explore differences in physicians' use of R/S topic avoidance tactics during a clinical interaction. Results indicated that physicians used more topic avoidance tactics in response to patients' R/S inquiries than patients' R/S disclosures; however, the use of topic avoidance tactics did not eliminate the need to engage in patient-initiated R/S interactions.
Description
Keywords
communication, religion, clinical interactions, Communication Studies
Citation
Villagran, M. M., MacArthur, B. L., Lee, L. E., Ledford, C. J. W., & Canzona, M. R. (2017). Physicians’ religious topic avoidance during clinical interactions. Behavioral Sciences, 7(2): 30.
Rights
Rights Holder
© 2017 The Authors.
Rights License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.