Family practice
-
Experienced continuity is important for good quality primary care but may be challenging to achieve. Little is known about how discontinuities or gaps in care may arise, how they impact on patients' experiences and how best to understand them so that they can be avoided or managed. ⋯ This study demonstrates that some patients with complex chronic conditions and multi-morbidity may be unable to get the continuity they need and highlights the potential for relationship continuity to help prevent vulnerable patients falling through gaps in care.
-
Research has highlighted empathy as an important and effective factor in patient-physician communication. GPs have extensive practical experience with empathy. However, little is known about the personal views of GPs regarding the meaning and application of empathy in daily practice. ⋯ The opinions of GPs in this research can be considered as supplementing and strengthening the findings of previous researches. The GPs in this study discussed, in particular, ideas important to the facilitation of empathy. These included: longer consultations, smaller practices, efficient telephonic triage by practice assistants, using intervision to help reflect on their work and drawing financiers' attention to the effectiveness of empathy.