PATIENT RESPONSIBILITY AND OBESITY IN DETERMINING HELPING BEHAVIOR OF STUDENTS IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS (PATIENT EDUCATION, NURSING STUDENTS, MEDICAL STUDENTS).

Description

Successful teaching of patients, to a large extent, depends upon the health care provider's helping behavior. Models of helping behavior have been identified which appear to have merit in determining the quality of teaching a health provider will use with a particular patient. Using the Brickman (1982) models of helping behavior, which combine responsibility for the problem and responsibility for the solution in a 2 x 2 taxonomy, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between models of helping behavior and the educational encounter involving health care professions students and their patients. The study also sought to examine obesity in relation to helping behavior. The study examined the question: does the health care providers' affect and helping behavior change with variations in patient responsibility or with obese versus normal weight patients given similar responsibility of the medical problem or the medical solution?. Three questionnaires were administered to 343 nursing and physician assistant students including a Patient Education Questionnaire using scenarios and photographs of obese and normal weight patients. An Obesity Sensitivity Questionnaire and a Knowledge about Obesity Inventory were the additional instruments. Responsibility for the problem and solution were confirmed to be sources of student effectiveness and willingness to educate patients. Students were significantly more willing to help the patient who was not responsible for the problem or solution. Consistent with the findings of attribution in other domains, students hold different feelings for patients when they are the cause of the problem. Specifically, more anger, disgust, and frustration were elicited in situations of high responsibility for the cause, and more pity and compassion were elicited in situations of low responsibility for the cause and solution. Although obesity was not a significant factor in the student's propensity to help, students with positive attitudes about obese patients were more willing to help them. The results operationalized the ability to look at responsibility for problem and solution in terms of patient diagnosis and medical intervention. It also reinforced the need for curricula to train students to address the realities of the situation they may be facing in patient and provider encounters.

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