Patient‑centeredness: A Comparison of Doctors’ Orientation bySpecialty in a Teaching Hospital in Nigeria

Context: There is a dearth of research on the orientations physicians bring into the patients physicians relationship in Nigeria. More scarewas to find which specialty doctors were high on patient‑centered care. To breach this gap, the study looked at doctors’ orientation topatient‑centeredness by specialty in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, a major tertiary health institution in North‑WesternNigeria. Aim: This study aimed to determine the range of patient‑centeredness by medical specialty among doctors working in AKTH, Kano.Methods: This is a cross‑sectional study in which 110 physicians representing eight medical specialties in AKTH, Kano‑Nigeria filled thesociodemographic questionnaire and Patient‑Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS). Statistical Analysis Used: Data collected were analyzedusing IBM‑SPSS 21 software using descriptive statistics to determine the frequency, cross‑tabulations, means, and differences and Cronbach’salphas to assess the PPOS internal consistency. Result: The three topmost patient‑centered oriented specialties on all the three outcome scoresare psychiatry, obstetrics/gynecology, and maxillofacial/dental unit (in descending order). Conversely, the lowest orientations are noted forinternal medicine and family medicine specialties. Specialties with medium patient‑centered orientation are surgery, radiology, and pediatrics.Conclusion: Our results concluded that the most patient‑centered medical specialty in the place of study is psychiatry. It argued that lowmortality rate and the chronic care practice model might be contributory factors. Elucidating on other contributing factors should be one ofthe challenges of future studies.

Patient‑centeredness: A Comparison of Doctors’ Orientation bySpecialty in a Teaching Hospital in Nigeria Keywords:

Doctors’ orientation , hospital , medical specialty , patient‑centeredness