Table 3.
Content of safety-netting advice across all episodes, N = 390
| Content | Codesa | Episode frequency,n (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Applicable to problem,treatment or management, or both | Problem | 270 (69.2) |
| Treatment or management | 38 (9.7) | |
| Both | 82 (21.0) | |
|
| ||
| Stage of consultation | Establishing reason for consultation | 1 (0.3) |
| Gathering information | 24 (6.2) | |
| Delivering diagnosis | 36 (9.2) | |
| Treatment planning | 203 (52.1) | |
| Closing | 123 (31.5) | |
| Unclear | 3 (0.8) | |
|
| ||
| Initiation | Patient | 20 (5.1) |
| GP | 370 (94.9) | |
|
| ||
| Format | Conditional plus course of action | 378 (96.9) |
| Conditional warning only | 12 (3.1) | |
|
| ||
| Strength of endorsement | Weaker (can, could) | 67 (17.2) |
| Neutral | 262 (67.2) | |
| Stronger, for example, must, should | 61 (15.6) | |
|
| ||
| Number of conditionals or symptomsto look out for, for example,worsening pain, symptoms persist,ornew weakness | Implicit conditionalb | 5 (1.3) |
| 1 | 234 (60.0) | |
| 2 | 77 (19.7) | |
| 3 | 36 (9.2) | |
| 4 | 18 (4.6) | |
| ≥5 | 20 (5.1) | |
|
| ||
| Generic or specific advice | Specific (cough up blood, chest pain …) | 184 (47.2) |
| Generic (problems, issues, concerns, worse) | 206 (52.8) | |
|
| ||
| Action advised | No action (conditional warning only) | 12 (3.1) |
| Contact other in-hours medical service | 12 (3.1) | |
| Return to practice | 244 (62.6) | |
| Return to same GP | 109 (27.9) | |
| Contact OOH service | 6 (1.5) | |
| Contact emergency services | 7 (1.8) | |
|
| ||
| Focus of action | No action (conditional warning only) | 12 (3.1) |
| Patient (‘you come back ’) | 163 (41.8) | |
| GP (‘I will have another look at it’) | 146 (37.4) | |
| Both (‘you come back, and I will have another look at it’) | 69 (17.7) | |
|
| ||
| Timescale of action | Not specified | 303 (77.7) |
| Named/fixed time (‘2 weeks’) | 65 (16.7) | |
| Immediate (‘go straight to A&E’) | 22 (5.6) | |
|
| ||
| Patient response at the endof the safety-netting advice | No responsec | 40 (10.3) |
| Resists/misaligns | 37 (9.5) | |
| Nods only | 42 (10.8) | |
| Acknowledgement/acceptance | 271 (69.5) | |
a
See the codebook for further explanation and examples of all codes. The safety-netting advice codebook prepared by the authors is available as Supplementary Table 3.
b
Example: ‘So 3 months if not before’.
c
Six cases of no response in audio only so unable to determine if the patient was nodding. A&E = accident and emergency department. OOH = out of hours.