Family practice
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There is an acknowledged gap between research findings and their implementation in clinical practice despite the existence of effective educational interventions. ⋯ In order to bridge the gap between research and practice, educators need to address the various 'barriers to change' amongst practitioners.
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Comparative Study
A profile of PMS salaried GP contracts and their impact on recruitment.
Personal medical services (PMS) pilot sites aim to use salaried GP schemes to improve GP recruitment and retention and enhance the quality of service provision, particularly in underserved areas. ⋯ Salaried contracts offer positive incentives to recruitment in terms of reduced hours of work and freedom from administrative responsibility. Recruitment success was similar to that achieved by inner city practices generally. This modest achievement might be enhanced by the addition of professional development schemes and increased flexible/part-time working.
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Despite the fact that more than half of depressed persons are treated for this disorder by primary care physicians, depression is often under-recognized or treated inadequately. There is continued emphasis on effective treatment of depression in primary care patients, but little attention has been paid to the role of the depressed person's illness cognitions in coping with this disorder. Given the often recurring and chronic nature of depression, the individual's self-management strategies may be critical to effective treatment, recovery and remaining well. ⋯ Although preliminary, these findings indicate that patients' understanding of depression and its consequences are associated with how they manage this illness. Future research is needed to examine the mediating and moderating effects of illness cognitions for depression on medication adherence and other self-management behaviours of depressed primary care patients. Knowledge about primary care patients' personal illness models will aid in the development of adherence interventions, self-management training and support services appropriate to patients' needs in the primary care setting.
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The experiences of family members will teach us how to handle an autopsy, the ultimate quality assessment tool. ⋯ A request for autopsy is one of the most difficult questions which has to be asked at a very difficult time. Three main considerations were important for the relatives: they wanted an answer to the questions "Is there something I overlooked", "How could this have happened" and "Are there hereditary factors which could have consequences for the rest of the family?" The GP is the optimal professional to discuss the autopsy report with the surviving family members. The best approach for the GP includes an open attitude, paying attention to informing the family and supporting their grieving process.
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Recent guidelines for treatment of hypertension advocate a multifactorial approach based on absolute risk of a cardiovascular event. However, this does not take any account of individual patient values or preferences for health outcomes that result from having hypertension. ⋯ Quantifying patients' preferences and using decision analysis as a shared decision-making aid appears to have an impact on whether patients would be recommended for antihypertensive medication. Further evaluation of this method as a shared decision-making tool is warranted.