Though the interaction between patient and practitioner has been shown to positively affect patient outcomes and experiences in various medical fields, the O&P profession often includes components and processes unique to its field. Therefore, a research team set out to identify the concepts, practices, and information about patient-practitioner interaction to understand how O&P clinicians can positively influence patient outcomes.
The researchers conducted a scoping review of PubMed, PsycINFO, and CINAHL for empirical research involving patient-practitioner interactions in O&P between 1990 and 2021. While initial searches discovered 646 unique articles, only two quantitative studies and three qualitative studies were included in the final analysis.
Three interconnected themes were prevalent across the five articles: the knowledge available to the patient and the practitioner, the difference in expectations of the patient and practitioner, and communication processes. The authors concluded that the three concepts create a feedback loop of consequences that can be addressed by ensuring that adequate and useful patient-practitioner communication is applied during the care process.
They also noted that despite multiple calls for research in this area over the past 50 years, a limited number of articles have addressed patient-practitioner interactions.
