Which clinician responses to emotion are associated with more positive patient experiences of communication?

Objectives: To identify communication strategies that may improve clinician-patient interactions, we assessed the association between clinician response to emotion and patient ratings of communication. Methods: From a cohort of 1817 clinician-patient encounters, we designed a retrospective case-control study by identifying 69 patients who rated their interpersonal care as low-quality and 69 patients who rated their care as high-quality. We used the Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences (VR-CoDES) to identify patient emotional expressions and clinician responses. Using mixed-effects logistic regression, we evaluated the association between clinician responses to patients’ emotions and patient ratings of their interpersonal care. Results: In adjusted analyses, explicit responses that reduced space for further emotional communication were associated with high ratings of care (OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.25, 2.99); non-explicit responses providing additional space were associated with low ratings (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.36–0.82). In terms of specific response types, neutral/passive responses were associated with low ratings (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.39–0.90), whereas giving information/advice was associated with high ratings (OR, 95% 1.91 CI 1.17–3.1). Conclusions: Patients may prefer responses to their expressed emotions that demonstrate clinician engagement, with or without expressions of empathy. Practice Implications: These findings may inform educational interventions to improve clinician-patient communication.