Interpersonal communication within Romanian medical field

Abstract

Objectives. At present, it is widely recognized that improving quality in healthcare delivery had become an extremely important topic for research. The objective of this study is to compare the types of interpersonal communication between Romanian patients and their general practitioners (GPs) with the discussions between Romanian pharmacists and the patients.

Material and methods. A quantitative method based on a comparative design for analyzing a sample of 199 respondents was conducted. The questionnaire consists of ten open questions plus five socio-demographic items. Descriptive statistics was used in the analysis of the result.

Results. A high percentage of the respondents (35%) did assess pharmacists as simple dealers and most of them did not communicate with the pharmacists during their encounters. At the same time, only 15% of the entire sample had discussed more than a half an hour with their GPs, the main subjects of discussions being rather ”standardized” (i.e. current treatments and the general health).

Conclusions. Lack of trust in the medical system and medical staff is directly linked not only to the economic and logistic conditions (lack of proper financing, massive migration of doctors, etc.) but it is also a consequence of the “improper” interpersonal communication between the patients and the Romanian medical staff. The basic conclusion of the study is that new strategies and plans for improving interpersonal communication among patients, GPs and pharmacists are needed at present in Romania.