A global picture of family medicine: the view from a WONCA Storybooth (original) (raw)

What does it mean to be a family physician?: Exploratory study with family medicine residents from 3 countries

Canadian family physician Médecin de famille canadien, 2009

To explore the conceptions that family medicine residents from 3 countries have of the roles and responsibilities of family physicians in order to gain a better understanding of challenges that might transcend the specific contexts of different health care systems. Qualitative study using focus groups. Resident training programs in France, Belgium, and Canada. A total of 57 residents in the last year of training. Ten focus groups were conducted in 3 countries: 2 in France, 3 in Belgium, and 5 in Canada. All focus groups were held in different cities, with residents registered in different universities in France and Canada and with residents from the same university in Belgium. The study was informed by Abbott's conceptual framework on the system of professions. Each 90-minute focus group was moderated by the same researchers. The transcripts were analyzed according to the immersion-crystallization method. Respondents shared common conceptions of the family physician's role: ...

Narratives in family medicine: a global perspective: The Besrour Papers: a series on the state of family medicine in the world

Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2017

To explore the development of family medicine postgraduate training in countries with varying levels of resources at different stages of development of the discipline. Since 2012, the College of Family Physicians of Canada has hosted the Besrour Conferences to reflect on its role in advancing the discipline of family medicine globally. The Besrour Narrative Working Group was conceived in 2012 at the first Besrour Conference. Their mandate was to use narrative and appreciative inquiry to gather stories of family medicine worldwide. The working group comprised members of various academic departments of family medicine in Canada and abroad who attended the conferences. A consultation process with our partners from lower-middle-income countries was undertaken from 2012 to 2014. Stories were sought from each global partner institute with ties to Canadian family medicine departments. An appreciative inquiry approach was chosen to elicit narratives. Thematic analysis was used to search for...

Strengthening Primary Care Through Family Medicine Around the World Collaborating Toward Promising Practices

Family medicine, 2018

There is a limited evidentiary base on the development of family medicine in different contexts and countries. The lack of evidence impedes our ability to compare and characterize family medicine models and identify areas of success that have led to the effective provision of care. This paper offers a comparative compilation and analysis of the development of family medicine training programs in seven countries: Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, and Mali. Using qualitative case studies, this paper examines the process of developing family medicine programs, including enabling strategies and barriers, and shared lessons. An appreciative inquiry framework and complex adaptive systems thinking inform our qualitative study. Committed partnerships, the contribution of champions, health policy, and adaptability were identified as key enablers in all seven case studies. The case studies further reveal that some enablers were more salient in certain contexts as compared to ...

Developing family practice to respond to global health challenges: The Besrour Papers: a series on the state of family medicine in the world

Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2017

To assess family medicine's role in developing strong, coordinated, community-based, integrated health care systems in low-resource settings globally. A subgroup of the Besrour Centre of the College of Family Physicians of Canada developed connections with selected international colleagues with expertise in international family medicine practice, health systems and capacity building, and teaching to map family medicine globally and give a bird's eye view of family medicine internationally. Following a background literature review, the authors collectively reflected on their substantial international experience to attempt to describe best practices for various contexts. With the failure of vertical, disease-oriented models to provide sustained improvements in health outcomes, the need to develop integrated primary care involving the most appropriate health professionals for differing contexts is becoming apparent worldwide. Health system planning is required to develop polici...

Global Competencies in Family Medicine

Results: 15 Family medicine/ primary care representatives completed the survey on behalf of their nation (or region in the case of West Africa). Results showed a trend toward a globally standard curriculum but still much variation in competencies taught.

Roles and challenges of family physicians in Uganda: A qualitative study

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, 2019

Background: The World Health report (2008), the World Health Assembly (2009) and the Declaration of Astana (2018) acknowledge the significant contribution of family physicians (FPs) in clinical and primary healthcare. Given the lack of resources and low numbers of FPs coupled with the contextual nature of family medicine (FM), the scope of practice of African FPs is likely to differ from that of colleagues in America and Europe. Thus, this study explored the roles of Ugandan FPs and the challenges they face.Methods: This cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted through in-depth interviews with FPs who are working in Uganda. Participants who work in public and private healthcare systems including non-governmental organisations and in all geographical regions were purposively selected. Interviews were conducted from July 2016 to June 2017. Qualitative thematic content analysis of the transcripts was performed using a framework approach.Results: The study team identified three a...

What challenges hamper Kenyan family physicians in pursuing their family medicine mandate? A qualitative study among family physicians and their colleagues

BMC Family Practice, 2012

Background: Since 2005, Kenyan medical universities have been training general practitioners, providing them with clinical, management, teaching and research skills, in order to enhance access to and quality of health care services for the Kenyan population. This study assesses what expectations family physicians, colleagues of family physicians and policy makers have of family medicine, what expectations family physicians live up to and which challenges they face. Methods: Family physicians were observed and interviewed about their expectations and challenges concerning family medicine. Expectations among their colleagues were assessed through focus group discussions. Policy makers' expectations were assessed by analysing the governmental policy on family medicine and a university's curriculum. Results: Roles perceived for and performed by family physicians included providing comprehensive care, health care management, teaching, and to a lesser extent community outreach and performing research. Challenges faced by family physicians were being posted in situations where they are regarded as just another type of specialist, lack of awareness of the roles of family physicians among colleagues, lack of time, lack of funds and inadequate training. Conclusions: The ministry's posting policy has to be improved to ensure that family physicians have a chance to perform their intended roles. Creating an environment in which family physicians can function best requires more effort to enlighten other players in the health care system, like colleagues and policy makers, about the roles of family physicians.

Approaching a global definition of family medicine: The Besrour Papers: a series on the state of family medicine in the world

Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2016

To find a common global definition of family medicine. Since 2012, the College of Family Physicians of Canada has hosted the Besrour Conferences to reflect on its role in advancing the discipline of family medicine globally. The Besrour Papers Working Group, which was struck at the 2013 conference, was tasked with developing a series of papers to highlight the key issues, lessons learned, and outcomes emerging from the various activities of the Besrour collaboration. The working group comprised members of various academic departments of family medicine in Canada and abroad who attended the conferences. Searching both definition of family medicine and history of family medicine yields a variety of defining features. Visiting family medicine training programs worldwide highlights this discrepancy. It is not an easy task to define family medicine-one of its key attributes is its adaptability to a local context, but this makes aggregation of data challenging. There is a lack of clarity ...