Programme : Should ideology be allowed to trump patient well-being? : Abstract of presentation
Patients' perceptions of bad treatment and of feeling wronged in Swedish healthcare
Maja Wessel ; Gert Helgesson ; Niels Lynoe
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm Centre for Healthcare Ethics (CHE), LIME, Stockholm, Sweden
Background: Maintaining a standard of respectful treatment is important in healthcare, particularly because the patient is often subordinated the caregiver. If encountered negatively patients might feel wronged, and such emotions could possibly influence their ability to return to work. Research on impact of negative encounters is scarce and few studies presenting a bio-ethical angle exist.The study aim to investigate the experience of feeling wronged after meeting healthcare professionals, and whether this is associated with specific types of negative encounters.
Methods: Analyses of data from a questionnaire including 5802 respondents. The survey contained questions about encounters with healthcare professionals and Social Insurance officers, and the possible emotions those led to, e.g. feeling wronged. About 28% (n=1621) of the respondents had experienced negative encounters and were selected as study sample. Odds Ratio with 95% confidence intervals was calculated for feeling wronged after exposure to any of 23 specific types of negative encounters.
Results: Feeling wronged was more common in the group of patients who had solely negative experiences, than in the group with both positive and negative experiences; 74.3 percent versus 67 percent. Having experienced following types of encounters gave highest OR:s for having felt wronged; 1) "not be met with respect" OR 12.7 (9.8-16.5), 2) "the staff was acting nonchalant" OR 12.2 (8.6-17.1), and 3) "staff was angry/unpleasant" OR 7.9 (6.1-10.3).
Conclusion: Patients who had experienced both positive and negative encounters were less inclined to feel wronged than patients with solely negative experiences. However, variations with regard to feeling wronged between different types of encounters exist. A strength with the study is the detailed information about certain types of treatment, but more detailed knowledge about what emotions specific encounters might lead to is important as bases for intervention.
Email: maja.wessel@ki.se
This conference is arranged by Cesagen at the universities of Lancaster and Cardiff and the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics at Uppsala University.