Open AccessA comparison of patients’ and dietitians’ perceptions of patient‐centred care: A cross‐sectional survey
Author(s) -
Sladdin Ishtar,
Ball Lauren,
Gillespie Brigid M.,
Chaboyer Wendy
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
health expectations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.314
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1369-7625
pISSN - 1369-6513
DOI - 10.1111/hex.12868
Subject(s) - medicine , scale (ratio) , family medicine , accreditation , cross sectional study , nursing , perception , test (biology) , descriptive statistics , psychology , medical education , paleontology , statistics , physics , mathematics , pathology , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , biology
Aim The aim of this study was to compare patients’ and dietitians’ perceptions of patient‐centred care (PCC) in dietetic practice. Methods Participants were as follows: (a) adult patients who had attended ≥1 individual dietetic consultation with an Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD) working in primary care; and (b) APDs with experience working in primary care. A cross‐sectional survey was undertaken using a patient‐ and dietitian‐reported inventory to measure PCC in dietetic practice. The inventory comprised of five previously validated scales: The Communication Assessment Tool; the 9‐item Shared Decision‐Making Questionnaire; the Patient‐Doctor Depth of Relationship Scale; the Schmidt Perception of Nursing Care Scale‐Seeing the Individual Patient sub‐scale; and the Person‐Centred Practice Inventory—Staff ‐Providing Holistic Care sub‐scale. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse participant characteristics and to compute total scores for the five scales. The Mann‐Whitney U test was used to compare median scores between patients and dietitians. Results One‐hundred and thirty‐three patients and 180 dietitians completed the survey. Patients reported significantly higher scores compared to dietitians for “shared decision‐making” ( P = 0.004), but significantly lower scores for “providing holistic and individualized care” ( P = 0.005), “knowing the patient/dietitian” ( P = 0.001) and “caring patient‐dietitian relationships” ( P =0.009). Conclusion This study highlighted potentially important differences between patients’ and dietitians’ perceptions of PCC and identified key aspects of dietetic care requiring practice improvements. Strategies are needed to bridge gaps between dietitians’ and patients’ perceptions and enhance PCC in dietetic practice. These findings suggest that dietitians should focus on individualizing nutrition care, gaining a holistic understanding of their patients and knowing/understanding each patient.