84398 - Communication with Patients

Learning outcomes

Demonstrate skills adequate to obtain and give clear and relevant information by adapting verbal communication to the cognitive and emotional status of patients/ caregivers. Recognize the variations in the emotions, mood and stress perceived by patients in different clinical settings. Apply empathy-oriented strategies of interaction to improve compliance to medical care. Develop strategies of decision making to obtain informed consent from patients/caregivers for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

Course contents

 

• The role of an effective communication and relationship on clinical outcomes
• Mistake and Fallacies in health-care communication
  
• Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processes in Perception
• Pavlovian and Operant Conditioning; Social Learning
  
• The role of the psychosocial context around the patient and the therapy on clinical outcomes
  
• How emotion affects communication
• Social Modulation of Pain

Readings/Bibliography

• Goldstein E.B. Cognitive Psychology. Connecting mind, research, and everyday Experience. Third Edition
  2011, 2008 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
  
• Benedetti F. (2013) Placebo and the new physiology of the doctor-patient relationship Physiol Rev 93: 1207–1246
• Colloca L. Finnis D. (2012). Nocebo effects, patient-clinician communication, and therapeutic outcomes. JAMA, 307: 567-8

• Blasini, M et al. (2017). Nocebo and Pain: an overview of the psychoneurobiological mechanisms. Pain, e585.

• O'Connor, Stephen J.; Trinh, Hanh Q.; Shewchuk, Richard M.Perceptual Gaps in Understanding Patient Expectations for Health Care Service Quality, Health Care Management Review 25(2):p 7-23, Spring 2000. [https://journals.lww.com/hcmrjournal/toc/2000/04000]

• Stewart M, Brown JB, Donner A, McWhinney IR, Oates J, Weston WW, et al. The impact of patient-centered care on outcomes. J Fam Pract. 2000;49(9):796–804.

Teaching methods

The Communication with Patients class consist of 2 CFU of 16 hours of lectures supported by slides.

Attendance to learning activities is mandatory; the minimum attendance requirement to be admitted to the final exam is 60% of lessons held in the integrated course "84397 - Communication Tools". Students who fail to meet the minimum attendance requirement will not be admitted to the final exam of the course, and will have to attend relevant classes again during the next academic year.

Excused absences may be authorized upon receipt of proper justifying documentation, in case of illness or serious reasons. Excused absences do not count against a student’s attendance record to determine their minimum attendance requirement.

 

Assessment methods

Assessment methods for the course COMMUNICATION WITH WITH PATIENTS consist of a written exam which will be held in the same session of the course COMMUNICATION WITH COLLEAGUES AND TEAMWORK. The exam consists of multiple-choice questions: overall n. 31 multiple-choice questions for Communications with Patients and Communications with Colleagues and Teamwork. The written exam will last 20 minutes.

Exam grades will be sent to the student representatives within 7 days after the written exam. Students who don't accept the grade will communicate their decision with an email to Prof Gobbini from their institutional email address @studio.unibo.it within 3 days after the publication of the grades. Please put 'Grade rejection' in the subject line.

Unless students communicate the grade rejection to Prof Gobbini within the 3 days window, the results of the exam will be officially recorded.

Grades below 18 will not be recorded.

If a student fails the exam (grade below 18) or refuses the grade, they can do the exam again on the first available date.

The final grade for the CI Communication Tools is the result of the average between the grade of the exam Communication with Patients and Communication with Colleagues and Teamwork and the grade of the exam Communication with Scientific World.

NB: The exam for the course Communication with Scientific World will be held separately by Professor Agnoletti.

 

Teaching tools

Teaching slides will be available on line at Unibo e-learning website https://iol.unibo.it

Office hours

See the website of Maria Ida Gobbini