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‘It was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care

OBJECTIVES: To explore patients’ experiences of getting a diagnosis of eye disease, the psychological impact of this and how this could be improved. DESIGN: An exploratory qualitative interview study using a narrative approach and inductive methods. SETTING: This study was conducted with patients wh...

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Autores principales: Ferrey, Anne, Moore, Lucy, Jolly, Jasleen Kaur
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315907/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35863827
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059970
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author Ferrey, Anne
Moore, Lucy
Jolly, Jasleen Kaur
author_facet Ferrey, Anne
Moore, Lucy
Jolly, Jasleen Kaur
author_sort Ferrey, Anne
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To explore patients’ experiences of getting a diagnosis of eye disease, the psychological impact of this and how this could be improved. DESIGN: An exploratory qualitative interview study using a narrative approach and inductive methods. SETTING: This study was conducted with patients who had attended ophthalmic appointments in primary and secondary care and in opticians located in the South of England. PARTICIPANTS: 18 people diagnosed with eye disease in England. RESULTS: Four themes were identified: the convoluted process of being diagnosed, the impact of clinicians’ words, the search for information and reflections on what could be improved. The prolonged wait for a definitive diagnosis was a source of frustration and anxiety for many patients. Professionals’ words and tone when delivering a diagnosis sometimes affected a patient’s view of their diagnosis and their later ability to come to terms with it. Patients were desperate for information, but many felt they were not provided with sufficient information at the time of diagnosis and did not know whether to trust information found online. Participants felt the provision of a hospital liaison service and/or counselling could mitigate the impact on patients and families. CONCLUSIONS: Interactions with clinicians can have a lasting impact on how a diagnosis is experienced and how well the patient is able to come to terms with their visual impairment. Receiving little or no information left patients feeling lost and unsupported. This led them to search for information from less reliable sources. Clinicians should consider how they communicate a diagnosis to patients, how and when they offer information about diagnosis and prognosis and where possible signpost patients to additional support systems and counselling services as early as possible.
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spelling pubmed-93159072022-08-16 ‘It was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care Ferrey, Anne Moore, Lucy Jolly, Jasleen Kaur BMJ Open Ophthalmology OBJECTIVES: To explore patients’ experiences of getting a diagnosis of eye disease, the psychological impact of this and how this could be improved. DESIGN: An exploratory qualitative interview study using a narrative approach and inductive methods. SETTING: This study was conducted with patients who had attended ophthalmic appointments in primary and secondary care and in opticians located in the South of England. PARTICIPANTS: 18 people diagnosed with eye disease in England. RESULTS: Four themes were identified: the convoluted process of being diagnosed, the impact of clinicians’ words, the search for information and reflections on what could be improved. The prolonged wait for a definitive diagnosis was a source of frustration and anxiety for many patients. Professionals’ words and tone when delivering a diagnosis sometimes affected a patient’s view of their diagnosis and their later ability to come to terms with it. Patients were desperate for information, but many felt they were not provided with sufficient information at the time of diagnosis and did not know whether to trust information found online. Participants felt the provision of a hospital liaison service and/or counselling could mitigate the impact on patients and families. CONCLUSIONS: Interactions with clinicians can have a lasting impact on how a diagnosis is experienced and how well the patient is able to come to terms with their visual impairment. Receiving little or no information left patients feeling lost and unsupported. This led them to search for information from less reliable sources. Clinicians should consider how they communicate a diagnosis to patients, how and when they offer information about diagnosis and prognosis and where possible signpost patients to additional support systems and counselling services as early as possible. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-07-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9315907/ /pubmed/35863827 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059970 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Ophthalmology
Ferrey, Anne
Moore, Lucy
Jolly, Jasleen Kaur
‘It was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care
title ‘It was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care
title_full ‘It was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care
title_fullStr ‘It was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care
title_full_unstemmed ‘It was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care
title_short ‘It was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care
title_sort ‘it was like being hit with a brick’: a qualitative study on the effect of clinicians’ delivery of a diagnosis of eye disease for patients in primary and secondary care
topic Ophthalmology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315907/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35863827
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059970
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