From: Infectious disease management in primary care: perceptions of GPs
Perception | Quotations illustrating statements on which categories of description were based |
---|---|
A. The GP must help the patient to achieve health and well-being | "The risk of complications is an important reason for starting treatment [with antibiotics]. But I also think it is reasonable to give treatment if the course of the illness is easier." GP:P "They are young parents and they are a little, well, they don't have much patience, maybe they're exhausted... you feel a bit more for them in a way, almost that I think I must do everything I can to make it [the infection] pass as quickly as possible or to make it as easy as possible." GP:N |
B. The management must meet the GP's perceived personal, professional, and organisational demands | "Maybe it's like this, that you have a wish to satisfy people. It's possible that's what it is, that it's more this discomfort you don't want to have." GP:B "As a physician it's wise to be passive, to wait-and-see. This is actually a useful way to work, as we do a lot in primary care, much more maybe than in some other specialities. But, at the same time, that may make you feel uncomfortable." GP:G "The face you show also creates a good client, a patient who stays with the medical centre, and this is also a way to make the finances work out. ... So, you should be very careful to take good care of your patients." GP:C |
C. Restrictive antibiotic prescribing is time-consuming | "Then it's like this; many times it is much easier to prescribe antibiotics than not to. [...] you don't need any discussion, you don't need to explain yourself." GP:A "But to try to persuade or convince the patient that this is nothing you should treat with antibiotics, if they have expectations of getting something, is a challenge. Often you are short of time and at the same time you want the patient to be satisfied and feel listened to and confirmed." GP:R |
D. Restrictive antibiotic prescribing can protect the effectiveness of antibiotics | "And often, when you explain that the guidelines are what they are and that we're trying to be cautious, to make antibiotics effective in the future, many [patients will] buy this, especially when you say that it's possible to call back and get a follow-up." GP:D "But then you must be able to contain this uncertainty, that is to say, it's like that. This is incorporated in my profession that I, I cannot x-ray all of them, totally safeguard ... I think you must have a larger safety margin when you are younger, when you haven't seen so much." GP:I |
E. Patients benefit personally from restrictive antibiotic prescribing | "I have this attitude then, I think and believe that the body can manage itself. It will recover better and we have also seen that the immune system will not be improved by antibiotics; on the contrary you become weaker." GP:E "They [the patients] are known here, and they know the medical centre. And so I think it has changed a lot. When I was new in this profession I think it was more difficult to motivate, but now I think they are so well-informed." GP:Q |