Comparison of Expectations of Outpatients and Outpatient Medical Students from Physicians

Patient expectations is often used to show what patients hope to happen. In this regard, physicians should consider patients’ expectations without giving them the authority to perform operations. Therefore, this study aimed to examine and compare the expectations of outpatients and outpatient medical students from physicians.
This descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted on 150 patients referred to internal medicine, psychiatry, gynecology, and surgery clinics and 150 interns. Patient expectations were assessed using a researcher-made questionnaire. Then, the data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software, version 14.
The findings indicated that the mean score of patient expectations was 87.32.12 among the patients and 83.86.85 among the interns, and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.001). In addition, a significant positive relationship was found between patient expectations from physicians and patients’ age in the patients group (r=0.37, P=0.005).
Based on these results, the patients and interns had similar expectations from physicians. Yet, the patients had higher expectation levels from physicians. Due to the positive impact of patient expectations on their satisfaction with physicians and the healthcare system, considering the fact that patients’ expectations are similar to one’s own expectations from physicians can have a positive impact.