Conducting short workshops on reading facial expressions can improve a physician's interpretation of a patient's emotions, which could potentially increase patient satisfaction, according to a recent study published in Academic Medicine.
For the study, researchers developed a 90-minute, instructional presentation to teach physicians about facial expressions and their correlated emotions. The study's authors conducted these workshops at six venues in the U.S. The effectiveness of the workshop was assessed by two evaluations — one before and one after the workshop — measuring participants' skill, knowledge, attitude and confidence regarding the workshop's subject matter. All participants — more than 150 — displayed improvement after the workshop in each measure.
As previous research has indicated that a physician's sensitization to patient emotion is linked to patient satisfaction, this research highlights the potential for improving care quality with more efficient and open communication.
"Emotions are clues that something is going on in the patient, that there's a fear or there's a concern they haven't brought up yet," said John Ragsdale, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington. "I find just acknowledging that emotion, and letting the patient respond, opens the door to more of that conversation."
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