Impact of UK National Clinical Communication Guidelines on Adults’ Perceptions of Doctors and Treatment Commitment

UK national guidelines recommend how healthcare professionals should communicate with patients. However, the impact of following, or violating, these guidelines on how much the healthcare professional is respected, liked, or trusted, and the mechanisms underpinning, and consequences of, these perceptions have not been tested. To address these gaps, two UK-based, pre-registered studies using within-subjects designs required participants to rate how much they respect, like and trust general practitioners (GPs), as well as how competent, assertive, moral, and warm they are, and their commitment to adhere to their advice. After these baseline assessments, participants were presented with a series of vignettes where hypothetical GPs violated (Study 1, N = 329, and Study 2, N = 329) and followed (Study 2 only) recommended communication guidelines. Violations reduced respect for GPs more than liking and liking more than trust. Following communication guidelines increased liking for GPs the most followed by trust and respect the least. Violations of, and following, communication guidelines impacted (reduced/increased, respectively) patients' commitment to treatment adherence via trust, primarily, as well as respect. Summarizing information and checking patients have understood the most important information impacted how GPs were evaluated more than the other tested communication recommendations, suggesting this specific recommendation could be prioritized over the other tested recommendations. Furthermore, by impacting how much patients trust and, to a lesser extent, respect their GP, how committed patients are to following treatment advice could be affected by how GPs communicate with their patients.