Communication Apprehension and Fear of Physician in the Patients Referring to the Clinics of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences

A good and effective communication between physician and patient is the backbone of desirable medical care. This study aimed to determine the fear of physician and communication apprehension in the patients referring to the clinics of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in 2015.
Materials and 150patients were selected through Quota sampling method to participate in this study. Data gathering was done by a questionnaire which consisted of three parts: demographic information ;Personal Report of Communication Apprehension questionnaire (PRCA 24); and the fear of physician (FOP) questionnaire. The data were analyzed using T Test, Fisher and Chi square tests by SPSS software version 18.
Ethical Considerations: patients consent for research participation was obtained and confidentiality was observed.
Findings : The mean age of the participants was 31.31±9.78. The youngest participant was 13 and the oldest participant reported to be 63. 68% of the respondents were female and 32% were male and overall 30.7% of the pa rticipants were single. Regarding the job status, 31.1% of the participants had jobs in the governmental sections while 4.1% were unemployed. The rest were either self - employed or were farmers or laborers. The mean score of the communication apprehension w as in medium level ( 71.3±6.46 ). The communication apprehension in 95.3% of the patients was medium but in 4.7% of the patients was high. The mean score of FOP was 12.97 ± 2.99 . The fear of physician in 64.6% of the patients was medium and in 35.4% of the patients was high.
Effective treatment requires effective communication between physician and patient. So it is necessary for the patients to feel comfortable talking with the doctor. The patients should see themselves as a partner in the treatmen t process in order to receive the best care.