Core Values of Family Medicine in Europe: Current State and Challenges

Background: Values are deeply held views that act as guiding beliefs for individuals and organizations. They state what is important in a profession. The aims of this study were to determine whether European countries have already developed (or are developing) documents on core values in family medicine; to gather the lists of core values already developed in countries; and to gather the opinions of participants on what the core family values in their countries are.Methods: This was a qualitative study. The questionnaire was distributed as an e-survey via email to present and former members of the European Society for Quality and Safety in Family Practice (EQuiP), and other family medicine experts in Europe. The questionnaire included six items concerning core values in family medicine in the respondent's country: the process of defining core values, present core values, the respondents' suggestions for core values, and current challenges of core values.Results: Core values in family medicine were defined or in a process of being defined in several European countries. The most common core values already defined were the doctor-patient relationship, continuity, comprehensiveness and holistic care, community orientation, and professionalism. Some countries expressed the need for an update of the current core values' list. Most respondents felt the core values of their discipline were challenged in today's world. The main values challenged were continuity, patient-centered care/the doctor-patient relationship and comprehensive and holistic care, but also prioritization, equity, and community orientation and cooperation. These were challenged by digital health, workload/lack of family physicians, fragmentation of care, interdisciplinary care, and societal trends and commercial interests.Conclusion: We managed to identify suggestions for core values of family medicine at the European level. There is a clear need to adopt a definition of a value and tailor the discussion and actions on the family medicine core values accordingly. There is also a need to identify the core values of family medicine in European countries. This could strengthen the profession, promote its development and research, improve education, and help European countries to advocate for the profession.

Download Full-text

Core Values of Family Physicians and General Practitioners in the African Context

Frontiers in Medicine ◽

10.3389/fmed.2021.667144 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Henry J. O. Lawson ◽

David N. N. Nortey

Keyword(s):

Family Medicine ◽

General Practitioners ◽

Clinical Training ◽

Online Survey ◽

Family Physicians ◽

Core Values ◽

Training Methods ◽

African Countries ◽

The Core ◽

Daunting Task

Introduction: Family Medicine is a growing specialty in the medical world. While it is expected that the specialty should have its own unique and established core values and tasks, the breath of the practice in several countries of the world has made this a daunting task. Core values and Tasks have far reaching effects on professions. They guide development of curricula, methods of instruction, standards of performance and even the culture of the profession. We aimed to explore the core value system of Family Physicians and General Practitioners practicing in Africa.Methods: Using the Delphi technique, a purposive selection of African Family Medicine practitioners in academia, public service, private practice and clinical training across Central, East, North, South and West Africa was conducted. Participants were asked to select five core values from an alphabetically collated global list of 29 core values in an online survey. The five most selected core values were collated and sent out in the second round to the participants to rank in order of importance.Results: Practitioners from nine African countries in three out of the five United Nations subregions of Africa completed the study. The first round of the study saw participation of a team of nineteen experts who selected the following five core values—Comprehensive care, Continuity of Care, Collaborative Care, Patient centered care, and Life-long learning.Discussion/Conclusion: The core values selected were not very different from global literature. These core values should guide the development of curricula, standardization of training methods and creation of benchmarks for standards of practice for the specialty in Africa.

Download Full-text

全人照護及其教育訓練與評值

醫療品質雜誌 ◽

10.53106/199457952022011601007 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 042-047

Author(s):

鄭舒倖鄭舒倖 ◽

蕭宇涵 Shu-Hsing Cheng ◽

李孟智 Yu-Han Hsiao

Keyword(s):

Health Care Providers ◽

Hospice Care ◽

Family Care ◽

Core Values ◽

Holistic Care ◽

Care Providers ◽

The Core ◽

Education Training ◽

Consistent Assessment ◽

Main Components

目的：全人照護是對病人身體、心理、社會層面及靈性全面照護的態度與行為，需要醫療院所投注多專業、跨領域且有效率又有品質的整合服務，才能滿足病人「一站式服務、一次購足」的需求。本文之目的在於詮釋全人照護之真諦、內涵、教育訓練與評值。 方法：藉由闡釋全人照護的素養與能力，強調推廣全人照護需要多面向的教育訓練加以養成，並發展以能力為基礎的評值方法。 結果：醫療人員需要終身持續學習有關全人照護的核心知識與技能、醫療專業照護、同理心與心理支持、就醫行為和家庭照護，以及生命關懷及和臨終照護，並佐以適合及一致性的評值標準，方能系統性的推廣全人照護。 結論：本文探討全人照護的真諦、如何推動全人照護及如何實施全人照護之教育訓練與評值，作為醫療院所推動全人照護之參考。  Objective: Holistic care is an approach that involves consideration of the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing of a patient. It involves multidisciplinary, interprofessional integrated teams with members who educate, cooperate with, and respect each other to offer one-stop fulfillment of patient needs. This article explains the core values and intentions of holistic care and the relevant education, training, and assessments. Methods: By explaining the competencies of holistic care, this article argues that the promotion of holistic care necessitates multidimensional education, training, and competency-based assessments. Results: To systematically promote holistic care, accompanied by appropriate and consistent assessment standards, health care providers must continue to learn about the main components of holistic care, including its required knowledge and competencies, professional medical care empathy and psychological support, the praxeology of healthcare seeking, family care, and end-of-life and hospice care. Conclusion: This article discusses the core values of holistic care; how to promote holistic care; and how to implement education, training, and assessments in the field of holistic care and may therefore serve as a reference for holistic care training in medical settings.

Download Full-text

Trust is the Core of the Doctor–Patient Relationship: From the Perspective of Traditional Chinese Medical Ethics

China: Bioethics, Trust, and The Challenge Of The Market ◽

10.1007/978-1-4020-6757-0_4 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 39-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Benfu Li ◽

Linying Hu

Keyword(s):

Medical Ethics ◽

Patient Relationship ◽

Doctor Patient Relationship ◽

The Core ◽

Traditional Chinese Medical

Download Full-text

Must-Read Family Medicine Research—Glucosamine/Chondroitin Supplements and Mortality, Telomere Length and the Doctor-Patient Relationship, Reducing Opioid Use, and More

The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine ◽

10.3122/jabfm.2020.06.200513 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (6) ◽

pp. 823-826

Author(s):

Dean A. Seehusen ◽

Marjorie A. Bowman

Keyword(s):

Family Medicine ◽

Telomere Length ◽

Patient Relationship ◽

Opioid Use ◽

Doctor Patient Relationship ◽

Medicine Research

Download Full-text

Family Medicine Quartet

International Journal of Whole Person Care ◽

10.26443/ijwpc.v2i2.103 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Maureen Estelle Rappaport

Keyword(s):

Family Medicine ◽

Patient Relationship ◽

Doctor Patient Relationship ◽

Medical Discipline

Family medicine is a unique medical discipline centred on the patient and the doctor patient relationship. In this essay I use an arts based inquiry juxtaposing clinical narratives to illustrate the clinical philosophy of Ian McWhinney.

Download Full-text