Research project

Enhancing Communication about Menstrual Problems in Primary Care: Development, Optimisation, and Initial Evaluation of the Empathic-Flow Module

Project overview

Recent UK surveys highlight women feel they are not listened to and dismissed during primary care appointments about health conditions considered specific to women (e.g., heavy periods, period pain).

Empathetic communication - which requires careful questioning, active listening and responding to patients’ needs - and realistic optimism – being both positive and realistic about treatment outcomes - have been shown to improve patient satisfaction and health. The Empathico e-learning intervention (developed at the University of Southampton) aims to promote primary care practitioners’ (PCPs’) communication of empathy and realistic optimism during appointments. Empathico skills are expected to be applied to appointments for all conditions, however, condition-specific modules can help in areas where PCPs find communication challenging.

This PhD project aims to add to Empathico (see website at top of page) by developing a specific module to improve PCPs’ communication during appointments about menstrual problems. The steps taken to develop the module will involve:

•Looking at past research on communication during primary care appointments between PCPs and patients with menstrual problems.
•Creating a new Empathico module based on discussions with PCPs and patients about their experiences and thoughts on the use of empathy and optimism.
•Later, PCPs will try the new module and in real-time be asked about the module’s strengths and weaknesses.
•A small evaluation of the module will recruit a handful of PCPs to work through the Empathico intervention (including the new module) at their own pace.

Ultimately, the module will support PCPs to enhance their communication with patients who present to primary care with menstrual problems which in turn may help patients feel more heard and better understood.

This PhD Project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research.

Supervised by Prof Hazel Everitt, Prof Felicity Bishop, Dr Leanne Morrison and Dr Rachel Dewar-Haggart.

Staff

Lead researchers

Miss Katie Read

Research interests

  • Primary Care
  • Health Psychology
  • Women's Health
Connect with Katie
Other researchers

Professor Hazel Everitt

Professor of Primary Care Research

Research interests

  • Supporting Self-management 
  • Healthcare communication
  • Development of digital interventions
Connect with Hazel

Professor Flis Bishop

Professor of Health Psychology

Research interests

  • Placebo effects and context effects in healthcare
  • Complementary and integrative medicine utilisation
  • Treatment decision-making and adherence
Connect with Flis

Dr Leanne Morrison

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Health Psychology 
  • Person-based intervention development 
  • Digital technology 
Connect with Leanne

Dr Rachel Dewar-Haggart BSc (Hons) MSc PhD CPsychol

Public Health Teaching Fellow

Research interests

  • Primary care
  • Health psychology
  • Qualitative methods
Connect with Rachel

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs