Coding the negative emotions of family members and patients among the high-risk preoperative conversations with the Chinese version of VR-CoDES

Liru Qian; Xinchun Liu; Meng Yin; Ya Zhao; Bingyu Tie; Qingyan Wang; Yi Zhang; Siyang Yuan

doi:10.1111/hex.13502

Coding the negative emotions of family members and patients among the high-risk preoperative conversations with the Chinese version of VR-CoDES

Health Expect. 2022 Aug;25(4):1591-1600. doi: 10.1111/hex.13502. Epub 2022 Apr 21.

Authors

Liru Qian¹, Xinchun Liu¹, Meng Yin¹, Ya Zhao¹, Bingyu Tie¹, Qingyan Wang², Yi Zhang³, Siyang Yuan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Psychology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
² Department of International Exchange and Cooperation, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
³ Department of Medical Administration, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁴ Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.

Abstract

Background: Little is known about family members' and patients' expression of negative emotions among high-risk preoperative conversations.

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the occurrence and patterns of the negative emotions of family members and patients in preoperative conversations, to investigate the conversation themes and to explore the correlation between the negative emotions and the conversation themes.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using the Chinese version of Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences (VR-CoDES-C) to code 297 conversations on high-risk procedures. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the topics in which negative emotions nested. The χ² Test was used to test the association between the cues and the conversation themes.

Results: The occurrence rate of family members' and patients' negative emotions was very high (85.9%), much higher when compared to most conversations under other medical settings. The negative emotions were mainly expressed by cues (96.4%), and cue-b (67.4%) was the most frequent category. Cues and concerns were mostly elicited by family members and patients (71.6%). Negative emotions were observed among seven themes, in which 'Psychological stress relating to illness severity, family's care and financial burden' (30.3%) ranked the top. Cue-b, cue-c and cue-d had a significant correlation (p < .001) with certain themes.

Conclusions: Family members and patients conveyed significantly more negative emotions in the high-risk preoperative conversations than in other medical communications. Certain categories of cues were induced by specific emotional conversation contents.

Patient contribution: Family members and patients contributed to data.

Keywords: VR-CoDES; Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences; conversation themes; high-risk preoperative conversation; negative emotions.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Clinical Coding*
Communication*
Emotions
Family* / psychology
Humans
Patients* / psychology
Physician-Patient Relations*
Referral and Consultation
Retrospective Studies
Risk
Surgical Procedures, Operative* / psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires