Doctors' communication style : impact on patient participation
Abstract
This paper presents the findings of a study on doctors’ communication style and its implications on
patients’ participation. The data for this study were gathered from audio recording of ten clinical
consultations and interview with a doctor at the Hematology Clinic in a General Hospital in Malaysia.
The data were transcribed and analysed based on the three components of patients’ participation
proposed by Cegala (2011). Findings indicate doctors display two different styles of communication
during the clinical consultations. Further investigation reveal that the sharing style consultation does
indeed encourage more patients’ participation than the Directing style. The findings of this study have
important implications for communication training for medical students. The paper concludes with a
discussion of the directions for future studies.