Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2012 Mar 2:12:8.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-12-8.

Dunno if you've any plans for the future: medical student indirect questioning in simulated oncology interviews

Céline Bourquin  1 , Friedrich Stiefel, Alexandre Berney, Pascal Singy
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Dunno if you've any plans for the future: medical student indirect questioning in simulated oncology interviews

Céline Bourquin et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: This exploratory study investigated the motives of medical students (N = 63) for using indirect questions of the type I don't know if [you have already heard about chemotherapies], I don't know how [you are], or I don't know what [you do for a living] in simulated patient interviews during a communication skills course.

Methods: I don't know questions (IDK-Qs) were observed during the initial evaluation of students' communication skills; they were systematically identified through video screening and subjected to a qualitative content and discourse analysis considering their context, their content, their intent and their effect on the simulated patients. To evaluate the specificity of medical students' IDK-Qs, the data were compared with a data set of oncologists (N = 31) conducting simulated patient interviews in the context of a Communication Skills Training (CST).

Results: During the interviews, 41.3% of the students asked 1-6 IDK-Qs. The IDK-Qs were attributed to three content categories: medical/treatment questions (N = 24); lifestyle/psychosocial questions (N = 18); and "inviting questions" questions (N = 11). Most of the IDK-Qs had an exploratory function (46/53), with simulated patients providing detailed responses or asking for more information (36/53). IDK-Qs were rare in the oncologist sample compared to the student sample (5 vs. 53 occurrences).

Conclusions: IDK-Qs showed a question design difference between medical students and oncologists in simulated patient interviews. Among other reasons for this difference, the possible function of IDK-Qs as a protective linguistic strategy and marker for psychological discomfort is discussed.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Brewin TB. Three ways of giving bad news. Lancet. 1991;337:1207–1209. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)92870-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ptacek JT, Eberhardt TL. Breaking bad news: a review of the literature. JAMA. 1996;276(6):496–502. doi: 10.1001/jama.1996.03540060072041. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ptacek JT, Fries EA, Eberhardt TL, Ptacek JJ. Breaking bad news to patients: physician's perceptions of the process. Support Care Cancer. 1999;7:113–120. doi: 10.1007/s005200050240. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dowsett SM, Saul JL, Butow PN. et al. Communication styles in the cancer consultation: preferences for a patient-centered approach. Psycho-Oncology. 2000;9(2):147–156. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1611(200003/04)9:2<147::AID-PON443>3.0.CO;2-X. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Epstein RM, Franks P, Fiscella K. et al. Measuring patient-centered communication in patient-physician consultations: theoretical and practical issues. Soc Sci Med. 2005;61(7):1516–1528. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.02.001. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources