Question: What happens if I get negative feedback in the PSQ?
Answer: The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) assesses your consultations skills from the patients' perspective and can provide insightful and useful information into your strengths and areas in need for development. You may have good clinical knowledge but your patients could feel dissatisfied with their consultations if they do not feel listened to, cared for and involved in negotiating a management plan. A GP trainee who adamantly sticks to his/her own agenda to ‘follow the guidelines’ and ignores the patient's agenda may not gain the best outcome from the patient's point of view. Sometimes, we unknowingly use certain phrases, or adopt certain postures or expressions, which may be inappropriate, not understood or perceived as negative by the patient. Your educational supervisor will review your PSQ results with you and, if there are areas in which you received poor marks, will help you outline a focused action plan. Although you only need to complete one PSQ in your GPST3 year (if 12 months long), if you receive poor feedback, it may be worth repeating the process after you have addressed the issues raised.
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