1. Explore key academics’ perceptions of PCC and how clinical communication is taught in Australian graduate audiology programs. 2. Explore the nature of PCC between patient and student during clinical encounters within a teaching clinic. 3. Explore students’ perspectives of their PCC skills and how clinical communication is taught.

1. 2Aims
1. Explore key academics’ perceptions of PCC and
how clinical communication is taught in Australian
graduate audiology programs.
2. Explore the nature of PCC between patient and
student during clinical encounters within a teaching
clinic.
3. Explore students’ perspectives of their PCC skills
and how clinical communication is taught.
Acknowledgments:
We would like to thank all the participants, clinical educators, and support staff from
UoM and MQ for their involvement in this project. Special thanks to Phillip Nakad and
Isabelle Biosvert for their assistance.
4Preliminary Results
Phase 1
• Nine program coordinators and key teaching staff
• Barriers and facilitators to teaching PCC
“When we do turn our attention to the obvious need for more on
patient-centered care, more on counseling, the immediate
question is where?”
“Communication is gritty, it's dirty, it's clumsy, it's noisy, it's
uncontrollable, it's quiet, it's violent, it's this, it's that, you can't
understand it by thinking”
Phase 2
To date: 21 student-patient interactions recorded and 9
students interviewed.
Preliminary emergent themes
• Case history and feedback on management
• Power balance
1 Background
What is Patient-centred communication (PCC)?
• PCC incorporates the concept of patient-centred
care.
• It adopts a holistic approach to care and values the
patient’s perspectives.
• PCC facilitates a therapeutic relationship, which in
turn increases patient satisfaction and patient
adherence to treatment or recommendations 1.
PCC in Audiology
• Despite audiologists’ self-reported preference for
patient-centred care 2, PCC is rarely adopted during a
clinical encounter 3,4.
• This gap highlights the need to explore how PCC is
taught and fostered in graduate audiology education.
• Little is known about the nature of PCC between
audiology students and patients, and the students’
perspectives on their own clinical communication
have yet to be explored.
Methods
Design: Mixed methods (i.e. integration of quantitative
and qualitative) containing two phases.
creating sound value www.hearingcrc.org
Audiology Students and Patient-Centred Communication
Samantha Tai1,2, Caitlin Grenness1,2, Robyn Woodward-Kron3, & Richard Dowell1.2
1HEARing Cooperative Research Centre, 2Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne,
Melbourne, Australia, and 3Melbourne Medical School, University of Melbourne, Australia.
3
5
Phase 1
- Aim 1
Participants: Audiology course coordinator and/or key
teaching staff from all six graduate audiology programs in
Australia.
Data: Semi-structured qualitative interview
Analysis: Qualitative content and thematic analysis
Phase 2a
- Aim 2
Participants: Final year audiology students from three
universities with an on-site training clinic.
Adult patients attending a full hearing assessment
appointments at a university audiology clinics.
Data: Video-recording of student-adult patient
hearing assessment and questionnaires.
Analysis: Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS)
Statistical analysis
Participants: UoM students who participated in the video
recording were invited to participate in the interview.
Data: Video reflexivity and semi-structured interview
Analysis: Qualitative content and thematic analysis
Phase 2b
- Aim 3
Implications
• Perspectives from both academic staff and students
will provide an insight into how PCC is perceived,
taught and enacted.
• Findings will assist in identifying barriers and
facilitators in teaching and learning PCC.
• Collectively, findings will inform aspects of clinical
communication that needs to be refined or
strengthened across Australian audiology programs,
and facilitate patient-clinician interaction in future
audiologists.
References:
1. Mead N, Bower P. Patient-centredness: a conceptual framework and review of the empirical literature. Soc Sci Med.
2000;51(7):1087-1110; 2. Laplante-Lévesque A, Hickson L, Grenness C. An Australian survey of audiologists’ preferences for patient-
centredness. Int J Audiol. 2014;53(Suppl 1):S76-82; 3. Grenness C, Hickson L, Laplante-Lévesque A, Meyer C, Davidson B.
Communication Patterns in Audiologic Rehabilitation History-Taking: Audiologists, Patients, and Their Companions. Ear Hear.
2015;36(2):191-204; 4. Grenness C, Hickson L, Laplante-Lévesque A, Meyer C, Davidson B. The Nature of Communication throughout
Diagnosis and Management Planning in Initial Audiologic Rehabilitation Consultations. J Am Acad Audiol. 2015;26(1):36-50.