Essai d'évaluation des déterminants de la confiance accordée à l'équipe soignante par les proches de patients de réanimation

Confidence, the bedrock of the doctor-patient relationship since antiquity, is not often the subject of study. Indispensable for the care process to run well, it is always sought after but may be distorted or undermined despite the good practice guidelines and regulatory directives given to care teams. In a study carried out on a medical intensive care unit, we attempted to evaluate the factors that can strengthen confidence but also what runs the risk of reducing it. For the purposes of this research, we on the one hand used a questionnaire developed by established experts in intensive care and, on the other hand, semi-directive interviews carried out by a psychoanalyst, on the subject of the confidence accorded to care specialists by the relatives of patients in hospital. In the light of the results obtained, we would suggest that, in serious circumstances, standardised questionnaires fail to elicit responses that genuinely reflect the thinking of the respondents. We also feel that the distinction between trust and confidence is as important in medicine as it is in economics.