A typology of sick-listed claimants to improve communication skills for social insurance physicians during medical disability assessment interviews.

INTRODUCTION: Role play with standardised simulated patients is often included in communication training. However, regarding physician-patient encounters in medical disability assessment interviews it is unclear what should be included in the scenarios for actors. The first objective of this study was to determine which types of medical disability claimants can be distinguished based on behavioural determinants. The second objective was to determine if these types of claimants differed in their perception of communication behaviour and their satisfaction with the communication with physicians.
METHODS: Questionnaire data were collected from 56 Dutch claimants for 13 behavioural determinants before their assessment interview, and for 12 behavioural and satisfaction variables afterwards. For the first objective cluster analyses were performed and for the second objective linear regression analyses were performed.
RESULTS: The results showed that three types of claimants could be distinguished: insecure support-seeking claimants, confident claimants, and socially isolated claimants. Overall, claimants were positive about the communication with the physician: insecure support-seeking claimants were satisfied and confident claimants were highly satisfied, but socially isolated claimants were unsatisfied.
CONCLUSION: Scenarios for standardised simulated patients should include different types of claimants. In training, special attention should be given to communication with socially isolated claimants.