Practice question · Multiple choice
Studies of consultations find doctors interrupt the patient's opening statement within roughly 20 seconds. Why does so small a number matter clinically?
Hints
- Patients tend not to lead with what frightens them most. Ask what gets said at second 40.
- The cost is not the rudeness, it is the information that now never arrives.
Show the answer
A. Because the interruption ends the agenda-setting
Why
Twenty seconds is enough for the presenting complaint and rarely for the real one, which surfaces late and often obliquely. The interruption does not shorten the visit so much as decide what it will be about, and the patient's agenda loses.
Practise Patient-Provider Interaction
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Psychology I is free to start.
More questions on Patient-Provider Interaction
- Roughly half of patients on long-term therapy do not take it as prescribed. A clinic proposes a leaflet on…
- Sort each communication practice by its effect on patient-provider communication.
- Select every statement that is TRUE about patient-provider interaction.
- Most research attributes non-adherence primarily to patient forgetfulness and lack of motivation.