Patient-centered care - evidence in the context of professional health practice

OBJECTIVES: to analyze patient-centered attitudes in care and sharing practices of nursing, speech therapy, dentistry and medicine professionals. METHODS: cross-sectional research was used with 411 professionals, and the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale instrument was applied as a measure of outcome. RESULTS: physicians presented higher mean scores, reflecting a patient-centered orientation, shared control, and focus on the person, with statistical difference for all domains (p<0.02). Dentists were the professionals who presented lower scores, especially in the sharing domain, with statistical difference in relation to nurses, speech therapists, and physicians (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: finally, the attitudes of professionals in the health areas studied indicated self-reported preference for centrality in patients. In this context, patient-centered care can be an important resource in health care when committed to overcoming the object man.