Patient's Experiences about Their Physician Professional Encounters during Hospitalization

One of the most important aspects of health services is physicians’ professional behaviors that will affect treatment process. Obtaining information of behavioral dimensions is essential for educational and managerial planning in clinical setting. This study aimed to identify the different aspects of professional treating physicians’ encounters via extracting and reviewing patients’ opinions and deep experiences.

In this qualitative study, the hospitalized patients in internal and surgical wards of two educational hospitals in Isfahan, Iran, in 2011 were enrolled. Sampling was done by purposive sampling method to achieve data saturation in this field. After signing an informed consent by the patient, a semi-structured interview was done by the researchers using interview guide. The gathered data were analyzed by content analyzing method and extracting themes.

From the 17 interviews, 333 codes in four themes and 19 sub-themes were extracted. The themes were “physician-patient communication” with 5 sub-themes, “expectations of profession” with 9 sub-themes, “physician’s humane perspective to patient” with 2 sub-themes, and “physician’s excellent characteristics” with 3 sub-themes.

Findings of this study demonstrated a series of actual concepts about patients’ positive and negative experiences related to their physicians’ encounters in clinical settings; these findings let us to comprehend the spiritual, psychological, affective, and social needs of patients. In addition, they may be used in educational planning process and health care service evaluation to achieve optimum services for patients.