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Table 2 Clinician utterance categories and definitions

From: How are emotional distress and reassurance expressed in medical consultations for people with long-term conditions who were unable to receive curative treatment? A pilot observational study with huntington’s disease and prostate cancer

Utterance category

Code

Definitions

Examples

Response to emotional distress

Non-explicit

'Affect or content of the cue/concern is not contained within the response'

Space-reducing

'Response concerned with closing down further expansion for patient on cue/concern'

Ignore

Shutting down

Information-advise

Space-providing

'Response concerned with eliciting further expansion from the patient on cue/concern'

Silence

Backchannel

Acknowledge

Active invitation

Implicit empathy

Explicit

'Affect or content of the cue/concern is contained within the response"

Space-reducing

'Response concerned with closing down further expansion for patient on cue/concern'

Information-advise

Active blocking

Space-providing

'Response concerned with eliciting further expansion from the patient on cue/concern'

Content

Acknowledge

Explore

Affect

Acknowledge

Explore

Empathy

Spontaneous reassurance

Affective reassurance

'Empathy'

Spontaneous presentations (in the absence of patient cues/concerns) which aim to create rapport and promote an empathetic relationship

"I know, and you would have been such a good mum too."

Cognitive reassurance

'Information-advise'

Spontaneous presentations (in the absence of patient cues/concerns) which aim to provide information and educate patients in order to achieve changes in beliefs or understanding

"If the side effects are too bothersome in the morning, if you feel, you know, quite parched, quite dry with the medication, stop it, it'll be fine."