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.

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