The Verbal Skills Used by Orthoptists During Private Patient Consultations

Irina Sim, BAppSc(Orth)Hons
Neryla Jolly, DOBA(T) MA(Macq)
Karen Pepper, BA(Hons) MA(Hons)
Discipline of Orthoptics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney

Purpose: Verbal communication is an essential part of the medical consultation. It can affect the patient’s level of satisfaction, compliance to treatment regimes and recommendations, and may impact on the quality of the patient-practitioner relationship. This study aims to explore the form and patterns of verbal communication that are used by orthoptists in private ophthalmic settings when consulting with patients and the impact of external factors such as experience, patient characteristics and initial or return consultations.

Methods: Twelve orthoptists and 49 patients were recruited from 3 private ophthalmic practices in metropolitan New South Wales. A real-time assessment of duration of clinical tasks and coding of verbal communications into categories was performed and analysed with the SPSS program using correlation and t-tests.

Results: Orthoptists were found to use extensive explanations, delivery of information and use of rapport, which increased with the orthoptists’ clinical experience. Patient characteristics such as age, gender, and cultural background did not affect the duration of tests performed or the verbal communication used.

Conclusion: Orthoptists use a wide range and types of verbal communications in their clinical practice. The level of the orthoptists’ clinical experience influences the verbal communications used by the orthoptist. Patient characteristics had little influence on the verbal communications used.