The European journal of general practice
-
Expression of strong emotions by patients is not a rare event in medical practice, however, there are few studies describing general practitioner (GP) communication with a crying patient. ⋯ GP trainees' patterns of communication with crying patients can be described in five steps: (a) let the patient cry; (b) verbalization of emotions and facilitation to express the problem; (c) mutual understanding and solution finding; (d) evaluation--maintaining contact; and (e) personal experience of great emotional effort.