Attitudes of Family Medicine Trainees Towards Patient-Centeredness Practice

OBJECTIVE: The interaction between physicians and patients is essential in clinical practice. Patient-centered care (PCC) is becoming popular in healthcare and provides an approach to deliver high-quality healthcare to yield positive clinical outcomes. This study explores family medicine residents’ attitudes toward the physician–patient relationship and patient-centered care and the possible influence of demographic characteristics, level of training, school of graduation, and previous training. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among family medicine residents in Riyadh. They were invited to enroll in a web-based survey that includes demographic data, training details, and the “Patient Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS).”. RESULTS: A total of 114 family medicine residents completed the survey. There were 68 (59.6%) males and 46 (40.4%) female residents. The overall PPOS was 4.23 ± 0.53. The mean score for sharing domain was 3.97 ± 0.66. The caring domain scored 4.49 ± 0.57. No correlations were found between the residents’ demographic data and other included variables, and the means of sharing domain, caring domain, and overall score. CONCLUSION: Family medicine residents were found to have positive attitudes toward patient-centeredness. Integrating patient-centered training early in the curriculum can improve healthcare students’ and trainees’ attitudes toward patient-centered care. Future research can explore the possible interventions in systematic assessment and training programs that can improve PCP.