Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Aug 22, 2023
Date Accepted: May 30, 2024
Patient and Provider Experiences with Compassionate Care in Virtual Physiatry: A Qualitative Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Telemedicine in the realm of rehabilitation includes the remote delivery of rehabilitation services using communication technologies (e.g., telephone, emails, and video). The widespread application of virtual care grants a suitable time to explore the intersection of compassion and telemedicine, especially due to the impact of COVID-19 and how it greatly influenced the delivery of healthcare universally.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to explore how compassionate care is understood and experienced by physiatrists and patients engaged in telemedicine.
Methods:
We employed a qualitative descriptive approach to conduct interviews with patients and physiatrists between June 2021 and March 2022. Patients were recruited across Canada from social media and from a single hospital network in Toronto, Ontario. Physiatrists were recruited across Canada through social media and the Canadian Association for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (CAPM&R) email listserv. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data were analyzed thematically.
Results:
A total of 19 participants were interviewed- 8 physiatrists and 11 patients. Two themes capturing physiatrists’ and patients’ experiences with delivering and receiving compassionate care, especially in the context of virtual care were identified: a) compassionate care is inherently rooted in healthcare providers’ inner intentions and are therefore expressed as caring behaviours and b) virtual elements impact the delivery and receipt of compassionate care.
Conclusions:
Compassionate care stemmed from physiatrists’ caring attitudes which then manifest as caring behaviours. In turn, these caring attitudes and behaviours enable individualized care and the establishment of a safe space for patients. Moreover, the virtual care modality both positively and negatively influenced how compassion is enacted by physiatrists and received by patients. Notably, there was large ambiguity around the norms and etiquette surrounding virtual care. Nonetheless, the flexibility and person-centeredness of virtual care causes it to be useful in healthcare settings.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.