Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To explore how primary care physicians respond to a community's needs and challenges. DESIGN: Qualitative study using focus groups. SETTING: Fee-for-service practices or community health centres in downtown Toronto, Ont. PARTICIPANTS: Purposive sample of 21 community family physicians (10 women and 11 men). METHOD: Participants were invited to join focus groups of four to six physicians. Themes were derived from qualitative analysis of the data using grounded theory. MAIN FINDINGS: Three major themes were identified by these community-responsive physicians: they carry out specific roles (collaborator, health educator, advocate, resource, and tailor of care); they face several challenges, including lack of funding and a dysfunctional health care system; and they share common beliefs about practising medicine. Whether current health care structures support physicians to actually carry out these roles in practice, however, is unclear. CONCLUSION: This study increased understanding of how primary care physicians respond to community needs and what they experience in the process.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (206.6 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Boelen C. Prospects for change in medical education in the twenty-first century. Acad Med. 1995 Jul;70(7 Suppl):S21–S31. doi: 10.1097/00001888-199507000-00017. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Brill John R., Jackson Thomas C., Stearns Marjorie A. Community medicine in action: an integrated, fourth-year urban continuity preceptorship. Acad Med. 2002 Jul;77(7):739–739. doi: 10.1097/00001888-200207000-00025. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Brill John R., Ohly Steve, Stearns Marjorie A. Training community-responsive physicians. Acad Med. 2002 Jul;77(7):747–747. doi: 10.1097/00001888-200207000-00036. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Godkin M. A. Community advocacy, physician roles, and medical education. Fam Med. 1993 Mar;25(3):170–171. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hall P., Weaver L. Interdisciplinary education and teamwork: a long and winding road. Med Educ. 2001 Sep;35(9):867–875. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2923.2001.00919.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kitzinger J. Qualitative research. Introducing focus groups. BMJ. 1995 Jul 29;311(7000):299–302. doi: 10.1136/bmj.311.7000.299. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Murray T. J. Medical education and society. CMAJ. 1995 Nov 15;153(10):1433–1436. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Neufeld V. R., Maudsley R. F., Pickering R. J., Turnbull J. M., Weston W. W., Brown M. G., Simpson J. C. Educating future physicians for Ontario. Acad Med. 1998 Nov;73(11):1133–1148. doi: 10.1097/00001888-199811000-00010. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Steiner B. D., Pathman D. E., Jones B., Williams E. S., Riggins T. Primary care physicians' training and their community involvement. Fam Med. 1999 Apr;31(4):257–262. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sullivan P., Buske L. Results from CMA's huge 1998 physician survey point to a dispirited profession. CMAJ. 1998 Sep 8;159(5):525–528. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Way D., Jones L., Baskerville B., Busing N. Primary health care services provided by nurse practitioners and family physicians in shared practice. CMAJ. 2001 Oct 30;165(9):1210–1214. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]