Patient initiatives and physician-challenging behaviors: The views of Israeli health professionals

The views of Israeli physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and medical social workers were compared regarding patient behaviors which express autonomy and initiative in the doctor-patient interaction. The data show that these professionals do not view such behaviors positively. Gender is relevant to the physicians' views, with male physicians, particularly the specialists, having the least negative views, and female residents and general practitioners the most negative. Allied health professionals express less negative views than the physicians, and attribute to the physicians more negative views than those actually expressed by the physicians. There is overall agreement among the different professional groups about the relative acceptability of these behaviors. Those which threaten the physician's dominance in the process of diagnosis and prescription of treatment are rejected outright, while others are tolerated but not accepted. The findings are interpreted in the light of the status-related motives of Israeli health professionals.