The European journal of general practice
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Letter Observational Study
Perceptions, professional responsibility and management experiences of patients with alcohol, tobacco and opioid use disorder by residents in general practice and teaching general practitioners.
Substance use disorders (SUDs) are based on pathophysiological mechanisms common to all psychoactive substances. However, general practitioners (GPs) hold different views depending on the substance in question. ⋯ The majority of practitioners had no difficulty managing smoking cessation. During the management of alcohol and particularly opioid use disorders, practitioners did not feel competent. The gap between their perceived responsibility and competencies should be addressed by training and promoting collaborative care.
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Healthcare complaints are an under utilised source of information for safety improvement, particularly in general practice settings. Within general practice in Ireland, complaints management is dependent on individual practice policies, with little standardisation nationally, impeding their use for safety improvement. There is a need to understand factors that contribute to unlocking the potential of complaints for safety improvement in general practice in Ireland and internationally. ⋯ There is a lot to be learned about how individuals experience complaints, however, this study adds to existing knowledge. The findings from this study can be used to tackle challenges facing complaints management in general practice, including the barriers to complaining for patients and the negative impacts of complaints on the staff, and can also help to build on positive aspects of complaints such as the desire for systemic change among interested parties.
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Despite the accumulated evidence suggesting the positive aspects of using group visits in obesity, the number of qualitative studies that examine why and how the effects occur at an individual level is limited. ⋯ Considering the barriers to weight loss efforts in this study, these issues need to be explicitly investigated before and during the group visits in addition to weight loss practices and behavioural changes.
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Childhood fever: Parental paracetamol administration after consulting out-of-hours general practice.
Background: Current guidelines emphasise prudent use of paracetamol in febrile children without pain. Little evidence is available on paracetamol administration by parents in general and post-GP-consultations. Objectives: To investigate if and how often parents of febrile children administer paracetamol to their child after consulting a GP during out-of-hours care. ⋯ Frequency of paracetamol administration was similar for most common infections, regardless of being painful or painless. Conclusion: Most children who consulted out-of-hours general practice for fever and common infections received paracetamol at home during their illness episode, regardless of a painful condition being present. Paracetamol administration increased with age.