Evaluation of empathy and biopsychosocial approaches of medical faculty assistant doctors

نویسندگان

1 Department of Family Medicine, Dicle University Medical Faculty, Diyarbakir, Turkey

2 Department of Family Medicine, Dicle University Medical Faculty, Diyarbakir, Turkey

3

doi
چکیده

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Biopsychosocial approach suggests that the individual’s health conditionis partly influenced by the interactions of biological, psychological, and social processes. It alsoconcludes that the clinical method should be patient‑centered, which is based on the physician’sinvolvement in the patient’s world and the physician’s ability to see the illness from the patient’s view.In this study, we aimed to determine the extent to which medical faculty assistant doctors use thebiopsychosocial approach in their clinical practice.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our study is a cross‑sectional type, descriptive, and analyticalresearch. The sample size consisted of assistant doctors who met the inclusion criteria which wereaccepted to participate in the study between December 1, 2017, and March 1, 2018, at the medicalfaculty hospital of Dicle University. Two hundred and three physicians participated in our study. ThePatient–Physician Orientation Scale (PPOS), The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE),and a survey study including questions in relation with sociodemographic characteristics wereconducted in our study. The reliability of the Patient–Physician Orientation Scale (PPOS) and JSPEused in our study was tested with Cronbach’s alpha and found to be 0.878 and 0.931, respectively.Questionnaires were administered by a face‑to‑face interview method during interview. Informationon the purpose and method of the study was given.RESULTS: A total of 203 physicians participated in our study. One hundred and forty‑three (70%)participants were male and 60 (30%) were female. According to medical disciplines, eightphysicians (3, 9%) from psychiatry, 21 (10, 3%) from family medicine, 104 (51, 2%) from otherinternal medical disciplines, and 70 (34, 5%) from surgical medical disciplines participated in thestudy. In the first subgroup of the PPOS, which is used in our study, the average score of psychiatryphysicians was 3.67 ± 0.99, family medicine assistant doctors 3.92 ± 0.67, other internal medicaldisciplines 3.98 ± 0.65, and surgical medical discipline 3.83 ± 0.61. In the second subgroup, which isdefined as the care in the same scale, the average score of psychiatry assistant doctors was foundto be 3.20 ± 0.45, family medicine assistant doctors 3.68 ± 0.54, other internal medical disciplines3.49 ± 0.60, and surgical medical discipline 3.68 ± 0.58. The results of the Jefferson Scale used todetermine the level of empathy in our study are found as psychiatry 78.25 ± 14.78, family physician67.71 ± 14.69, other internal medical disciplines 72.03 ± 13.46, and surgical medical discipline70.87 ± 15.24.CONCLUSIONS: The biopsychosocial approach is primarily an elementary approach model inmedical discipline such as family medicine and should be applied to other internal and surgicalmedical disciplines as well. With conducting this study, the awareness of this area will be increasedand related issues in the literature will be enriched.