Identifying the communication between physician and patient from the perspective of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients hospitalized for acute exacerbation

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the communication between physician and patient from the perspective of COPD patients hospitalized for acute exacerbation. Material and Method: This single-center, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted by using face-to-face technique with 400 patients who were diagnosed with COPD and hospitalized for acute exacerbation at Chest Hospital between 15 July-15 December 2015. Data of the investigation were assessed by using parametric and nonparametric tests after examining percentage, standard deviation, mean, significance testing of the difference between two means and normal distribution. Results: Patients that participated study; 55.5% aged 56-65 years, 63.5% were male and Level of satisfaction for communication by the physicians was calculated as 3.78±0.79 out of 5 (Mean of overall score in Satisfaction Scale of Physicians' Communication is calculated on a 5-point scale. Threshold value is accepted to be 3.5 in measurements. Values above this value are considered positive and below are considered negative). Conclusion: It was seen that there was a significant difference between Scale and the patient's jobs, residences, knowing the name of physician who were responsible for follow-up, duration of daily interview with the physician responsible for follow-up, ability to ask questions about the disease to the physician and receiving responses directly from the physician. In the results of study, there was a considerably high correlation between particularly conversation and body language, attention and body language, and attention and conversation factors. Point average of the scale in our study shows that the patients are satisfied with communication with their physicians. Key Words: COPD, Communication, Patient-Physician Communication, Patient Satisfaction