Table 1 Characteristics of the 11 included instruments

Physician Satisfaction Scale (Shore, 1986) [54, 76, 83]

Department of Preventive, Family and Rehabilitation Medicine

-To study physician satisfaction in encounter-specific situations.

-Non-specific clinical problem.

-Clinical and educational (the authors thought that the use of this instrument could serve as a possible pathway to changing providers' behaviour through self-awareness).

-2 dimensions/16 items

-understanding the patient's problem, having a sense that the patient understood what the physician said, affective reactions to the interaction with the patient and satisfaction of physician and patient were included.

Mental Work-Load Instrument (Bertram, 1992) [55, 56, 59, 74]

Department of Social and Preventive Medicine

-To assess the subjective experience or cost incurred by a physician in performing patient care tasks that reflect the combined effect of demands imposed by task requirements, the support personnel, information and equipment resources provided the physician's skill and experience, strategies adopted by the physician, effort exerted, and emotional responses to the situation.

-Non-specific clinical problem.

-Quality improvement (the authors aimed at taking into account the cognitive processes involved in physician work so that physicians could be trained or patient care settings structured to minimize the physician limitations and improve their performance as well as the productivity of the organization).

-5 dimensions/6 items

-mental effort, physical effort, difficulty, performance and psychological stress (each with 1 item except performance with 2).

Questionnaire concerning the sources of frustration physicians experience in their work with patients (Levinson, 1993) [72]

Department of Medicine

-To identify specific aspects of patient visits that cause physician frustration and to develop a self-assessment instrument for physicians

-Non-specific clinical problem.

-Quality improvement (the authors thought that through reflection, this instrument would assist physicians to identify areas of their experience with patients that are frustrating and that need improvement and that ultimately, patient care would be improved).

-7 dimensions/25 items

-lack of trust, too many problems, feeling distressed, lack of adherence, lack of understanding, demanding/controlling patients, and special problems (each with 3–4 items).

Physician Satisfaction Questionnaire (Suchman, 1993) [84, 85]

Department of Medicine and Psychiatry

-To assess physician satisfaction with primary care office visits in encounter-specific contexts, and to identify determinants of physician satisfaction.

-Non-specific clinical problem.

-Research, clinical and educational (the authors thought that this instrument could be used to guide the preparation of future physicians with skills, knowledge and attitudes they will need to practice in a manner that is satisfying both to their patients and to themselves).

-4 dimensions/20 items

-quality of the patient doctor relationship, adequacy of the data collection process during the visit, appropriate use of time during the visit and patient's non-demanding, cooperative nature.

Collaboration and Satisfaction about Care Decisions (Baggs, 1994) [49–53, 75]

School of Nursing

-To measure nurse-physician collaboration in making specific patient care decisions in intensive care units.

-Intensive Care Unit (ICU) settings (the author assumed that it could be used in non-ICU settings or to refer to other type of patient care decisions as well).

-Research and quality improvement (the author thought ultimately, responses to this instrument could be linked to patient and provider outcomes).

-2 dimensions/9 items

-level of collaboration between the physician and the nurse in making the decision (7 items) and satisfaction with the decision and decision-making process (2 items)

Medical Communication Competence Scale (Cegala, 1998) [60–63]

Department of Communication

-To measure doctor's and patient's perceptions of self and other communication competence during a general medical interview.

-Non-specific clinical problem.

-Research.

-4 dimensions/37 items

-information giving, seeking and verifying and socio emotional communication.

Provider Decision Process Assessment Instrument (Dolan, 1999) [57, 64–67, 69–71]

Department of Medicine

-To measure physicians' degree of comfort with a clinical treatment decision.

-Non-specific clinical problem.

-Quality improvement and research (The author asserts that combining it with an equivalent patient-oriented measure would make it possible to comprehensively assess the clinical decision making process).

-4 dimensions/12 items

-uncertainty, knowledge, value, effectiveness.

Note: the English version of the questionnaire was translated into French by a professional translator and then back-translated into English by a family physician who was not associated with the authors.

Patient-Physician Discordance Scale (Sewitch, 2003) [77–82].

Department of Medicine

-To assess discordance between physicians and their patients on evaluations of health-related information.

-Chronic diseases, most specifically inflammatory bowel diseases.

-Clinical and research.

-3 dimensions/10 items

-symptoms and treatment, well-being and communication and satisfaction.

Note: the English version of the questionnaire was translated into French by an independent bilingual medical translator and a bilingual psychology student, and then back-translated into English by two other bilingual graduate students who were not associated with the authors.

Mutual Understanding Scale (Harmsen, 2005) [68]

Department of Health policy and management and Department of general practice

-To develop a reliable measure of mutual understanding between general practitioners and patients.

-Non-specific clinical problem.

-Research or professional training.

-3 dimensions/8 criteria

-perception of one's own ability to explain to the patient, perception of the patient's ability to explain to the physician, and perception of patient's understanding of consultation aspects.

Reasons for Treatment Selection Questionnaire (Linden, 2006) [73]

Research Group Psychosomatic Rehabilitation

-To assess reasons why physicians select or do not select a certain treatment.

-Non-specific clinical problem.

-N/A

-5 dimensions/22 items

-theoretical knowledge, experiential knowledge, situational knowledge, anticipations about the further course of treatment, and interactional knowledge

Questionnaire concerning the doctor-patient communication skills (Campbell, 2007) [58]

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada

- To develop and psychometrically assess the feasibility, reliability and validity of an assessment tool in which both doctor and patient perceptions of the communication that occurred in a single office visit are captured.

- Non-specific clinical problem in general practice and medical specialists practice.

- Designed for use in the office settings.

- 2 dimensions/19 items

- The final instrument captures both the process aspects of the visit (e.g. patient greeting, listening, and understanding) as well as the content of the visit (e.g. explanations, treatment options, next steps).