Archives of General Psychiatry · 1975 · 227 citations · 11 references
MedicinePsychiatryAdult PsychiatryCommunity PsychiatryTherapeutic CommunicationClinical InterviewingPatient ExperienceDropoutPatient-clinician CommunicationPsychiatric Interview
This report conceptualizes the initial psychiatric interview as a negotiation between clinician and patient, viewing patients as presenting one or more legitimate requests, and highlights the relevance of this customer approach in walk‑in clinics and community mental health centers. The study seeks to demonstrate that clinicians can improve patient care and satisfaction by eliciting requests, collecting clinical data, and negotiating a mutually influential relationship. The authors operationalize this by having clinicians elicit patient requests, gather relevant data, and engage in negotiation to foster mutual influence. The approach improves patient care, patient satisfaction, and staff morale.
This report conceptualizes the initial psychiatric interview as a process of negotiation between the clinician and patient. Patients are conceived of as appearing with one or more requests, many of which represent legitimate needs. It is the clinician's task to elicit the request, collect the relevant clinical data, and enter into a "negotiation" that should foster a relationship of mutual influence between patient and clinician. We have attempted to show that this approach to patienthood not only improves patient care and patient satisfaction but also leads to improved staff morale. The "customer approach" has special relevance to those clinical settings (walk-in clinics and community mental health centers) in which clinicians see a broad range of patients with a broad definition of psychiatric problems and requests.
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