From “We cannot do anything!” to “Can we do something?” —A ‘one minute’ challenge to address the negative affect that doctors have in their patients

Abstract

【Aims】We conducted a study with the belief that using limited outpatient time, which one of the problems, “in a creative way”, could in some way increase satisfaction on both sides at our department’s outpatient clinic for indeterminate complaints. 【Subjects and Method】23 persons (12 males and 11 females) were divided into pairs, where the listener listened to the speaker’s conversation for at least one minute without making any comment, and then completed a questionnaire. We examined quantified data of patient communication abilities using the Score of Indefinite Complaints (SIC). 【Results】In response to the listener listening without comment, speakers responded that they felt a sense of satisfaction because, “I was listened to more thoroughly than I expected.” For this study we propose a method to build a good relationship with those patients. Propose: When there is “one minute” to spare: look the patient in the face for one minute and listen while nodding occasionally. 【Discussion】As shown in Propose, the patient achieves a sense of satisfaction from having the doctor listen to them, even if only for a short time. Furthermore, patient comments such as, “Just speaking gave me a chance to mentally organize my thoughts”, may indicate potential in some cases for patient utterances to offer a hint for treatment.