Table 1.

Physicians' responses to patients' expressions of emotion: Response categories and quotation examples.

Away: Responses that focused away from emotion
Provide Information
Clinical Explanation	Patient:	“So, the whole this is just real scary and I'm hoping that, in partnership, we're gonna be able to turn it around…”
	Physician:	“Sure. So it's actually pretty straightforward. I think we've made the diagnosis of pneumonia.”
Attempt to Fix Problem	Patient:	“It's hard [to quit smoking]”.
	Physician:	“Okay. We can get you some counseling and information.”
Justification	Patient:	“It's just uncomfortable. You know, the personnel – I can't tell you…”
	Physician:	“Well, it's a very different level of care hospital. I mean they are much more understaffed.”
Clinical or Content Question
	Patient:	“I was just like trying to pee and trying to pee and trying to pee and I prolapsed my urethra. So, it's like gees, it's like one thing after another!”
	Physician:	“So you got Cipro for your UTI?”
Change Topic
	Patient:	“And every time I think about eating, I think about going to the bathroom and I started crying because my –”
	Physician:	“Okay. Anything else about your Crohn's or this presentation that you think I need to know about.”
Neutral: Responses that focused neither toward nor away from emotion
One Word	“okay,“ yeah,” “mhmm,” “sure”, “right”, “wow,” absolutely”
Clarification	Patient:	“I'm just beset with the symptoms of Parkinson's.”
	Physician:	“With what?”
Restatement	Patient:	“I was so devastated when he said that it came back.”
	Physician:	“It came back.”
Toward: Responses that focused toward emotion
Empathy
Name	“…you were worried.”
Understand	“Anytime that someone goes through treatment and it is – the treatment is successful, anytime that cancer comes back is devastating.”
Respect	“But just meeting you, I feel like you are a very strong person.”
Support	“Yeah. Well, I care. I think it's important that we try to work on this together.”
Explore	“Tell me how you knew. You said that you knew [that you were dying].”
Sympathy	“I'm very sorry to hear about your dad.”