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Exploring the influence of cultural orientations on assessment of communication behaviours during patient-practitioner interactions

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Medical Education, March 2017
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Title
Exploring the influence of cultural orientations on assessment of communication behaviours during patient-practitioner interactions
Published in
BMC Medical Education, March 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12909-017-0899-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kyle J. Wilby, Marjan J. B. Govaerts, Zubin Austin, Diana H. J. M. Dolmans

Abstract

Research has shown that patients' and practitioners' cultural orientations affect communication behaviors and interpretations in cross-cultural patient-practitioner interactions. Little is known about the effect of cultural orientations on assessment of communication behaviors in cross-cultural educational settings. The purpose of this study is to explore cultural orientation as a potential source of assessor idiosyncrasy or between-assessor variability in assessment of communication skills. More specifically, we explored if and how (expert) assessors' valuing of communication behaviours aligned with their cultural orientations (power-distance, masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism-collectivism). Twenty-five pharmacist-assessors watched 3 videotaped scenarios (patient-pharmacist interactions) and ranked each on a 5-point global rating scale. Videotaped scenarios demonstrated combinations of well-portrayed and borderline examples of instrumental and affective communication behaviours. We used stimulated recall and verbal protocol analysis to investigate assessors' interpretations and evaluations of communication behaviours. Uttered assessments of communication behaviours were coded as instrumental (task-oriented) or affective (socioemotional) and either positive or negative. Cultural orientations were measured using the Individual Cultural Values Scale. Correlations between cultural orientations and global scores, and frequencies of positive, negative, and total utterances of instrumental and affective behaviours were determined. Correlations were found to be scenario specific. In videos with poor or good performance, no differences were found across cultural orientations. When borderline performance was demonstrated, high power-distance and masculinity were significantly associated with higher global ratings (r = .445, and .537 respectively, p < 0.05) as well as with fewer negative utterances regarding instrumental (task focused) behaviours (r = -.533 and - .529, respectively). Higher masculinity scores were furthermore associated with positive utterances of affective (socioemotional) behaviours (r = .441). Our findings thus confirm cultural orientation as a source of assessor idiosyncrasy and meaningful variations in interpretation of communication behaviours. Interestingly, expert assessors generally agreed on scenarios of good or poor performances but borderline performance was influenced by cultural orientation. Contrary to current practices of assessor and assessment instrument standardization, findings support the use of multiple assessors for patient-practitioner interactions and development of qualitative assessment tools to capture these varying, yet valid, interpretations of performance.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 89 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 89 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 12 13%
Student > Bachelor 11 12%
Researcher 10 11%
Student > Master 9 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 6 7%
Other 20 22%
Unknown 21 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 20 22%
Nursing and Health Professions 9 10%
Psychology 8 9%
Social Sciences 8 9%
Business, Management and Accounting 7 8%
Other 12 13%
Unknown 25 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 April 2017.
All research outputs
#15,451,618
of 22,961,203 outputs
Outputs from BMC Medical Education
#2,270
of 3,348 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#194,605
of 309,329 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Medical Education
#34
of 46 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,961,203 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 22nd percentile – i.e., 22% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,348 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.3. This one is in the 21st percentile – i.e., 21% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 309,329 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 28th percentile – i.e., 28% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 46 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 26th percentile – i.e., 26% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.