Abstract
BACKGROUND: Psychological problems constitute between 10% and 30% of general practice workload. In 1993, the Royal Colleges of General Practitioners and Psychiatrists published guidelines on the psychiatric component of vocational training for general practice, recognizing the need for training in the psychological aspects of patient care and knowledge of the psychotherapies. Little is known as to how much these guidelines have been followed. AIM: To determine Scottish general practice registrars' views on whether the above training objectives had been met. METHOD: An anonymous self-report questionnaire was sent to all general practice registrars in west and south-east Scotland one month before the end of their trainee year with a 95% response rate. This provided basic descriptive information on the population surveyed and their attitudes to psychotherapy training. RESULTS: Altogether, 53% had spent time in psychiatry and half of these had had access to a consultant psychotherapist, but only 9% had been involved in using a psychological approach to treatment. A total of 51% disagreed that they had had enough psychotherapy experience, and 44% did not feel confident in assessing patients for psychotherapy, 15% saying that lack of knowledge would prevent them from referring patients. Of the whole sample, 88% felt that further psychotherapy training would be helpful. CONCLUSION: The majority of general practice registrars in Scotland did not feel that training objectives had been met regarding the attainment of skills in the psychotherapies.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Corney R. H. A survey of professional help sought by patients for psychosocial problems. Br J Gen Pract. 1990 Sep;40(338):365–368. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dale J., Middleton H. Factors influencing general practitioners' management of psychosocial and physical problems: a study using case vignettes. Br J Gen Pract. 1990 Jul;40(336):284–288. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Goldberg D. P., Blackwell B. Psychiatric illness in general practice. A detailed study using a new method of case identification. Br Med J. 1970 May 23;1(5707):439–443. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5707.439. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hopton J. L., Dlugolecka M. Patients' perceptions of need for primary health care services: useful for priority setting? BMJ. 1995 May 13;310(6989):1237–1240. doi: 10.1136/bmj.310.6989.1237. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kaaya S., Goldberg D., Gask L. Management of somatic presentations of psychiatric illness in general medical settings: evaluation of a new training course for general practitioners. Med Educ. 1992 Mar;26(2):138–144. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1992.tb00139.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kearley K. An evaluation of the hospital component of general practice vocational training. Br J Gen Pract. 1990 Oct;40(339):409–414. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Styles W. M. . . . but now what? Some unresolved problems of training for general practice. Br J Gen Pract. 1990 Jul;40(336):270–276. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]