How do Lebanese patients perceive the ideal doctor based on the CanMEDS competency framework?

'Good' and 'bad' doctors - a qualitative study of the Austrian public on the elements of professional medical identity

Professional identity formation has become a key focus for medical education, but there is still much to learn about how to help students develop their professional identity. At a time when influential concepts such as public- and patient-centered care have become common values, there is little research on the conceptions of the public that trainees might adopt during their training. Defining characteristics of 'good' and 'bad' physicians can be a starting point when considering how to incorporate aspects of professional behavior into medical curricula. Therefore, this study examined the essential elements of physician identity from the public's perspective. This study aimed to describe the Austrian public's viewpoint about the characteristics of 'good' and 'bad' doctors. Using a qualitative research design, interviews were conducted with the Austrian public (n = 1000, mean age 46.4 ± 15.8 years). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed via qualitative content analysis. The respondents stated 2078 answers for 'good' and 1728 for 'bad' doctors. The content analysis produced seven categories: 'social skills' (36.3%), 'professional competence' (30.2%), 'personality' (10.8%), 'communication' (6.3%), 'practice organization' (5.9%), 'ethical and moral behavior' (5.7%), and 'I do not know, or I have no idea' (4.9%). The public can help medical students to construct their professional identity by supporting the exploration of and commitment to professional values that society expects of physicians. Ideally, fusing medical expertise with social skills will fulfill the ideal of what the public considers a 'good' doctor. This shared definition of a 'good physician' has several implications for medical education. Future physicians can benefit from education about the general population's medical needs as well as personal needs, fears, and concerns.

Competency frameworks, nursing perspectives, and interdisciplinary collaborations for good patient care: Delineating boundaries

To enhance patient care in the inevitable conditions of complexity that exist in contemporary healthcare, collaboration among healthcare professions is critical. While each profession necessarily has its own primary focus and perspective on the nature of human healthcare needs, these alone are insufficient for meeting the complex needs of patients (and potential patients). Persons are inevitably contextual entities, inseparable from their environments, and are subject to institutional and social barriers that can detract from good care or from accessing healthcare. These are some of the reasons behind current movements to develop competency frameworks that can enhance cross-disciplinary communication and collaboration. No single profession can claim the big picture. Effective teamwork is essential and requires members of diverse professions to understand the nature of each other's knowledge, skills, roles, perspectives, and perceived responsibilities so that they are optimally utilized on behalf of patients and their families. Interdisciplinary approaches to care permit different aspects of a person's needs to be addressed seamlessly and facilitate the removal of obstacles by engaging the range of resources exemplified by the different professions. Additionally, collaborative efforts are needed to influence policy changes on behalf of individual and social good and to address root causes of poor health especially as these impact society's most vulnerable. Here, we explore both the benefits and the risks of an uncritical acceptance of competency frameworks as a way to enhance interdisciplinary communication. We highlight the importance of anchoring proposed competency domains in the reason for being of a given profession and exemplify one way this has been accomplished for advanced practice nursing. Additionally, we argue that having this mooring, permits integration of the various competencies that both enhances professional moral agency and facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration to further the mutual goals of the healthcare professions on behalf of quality patient care.

The Role of EPAs in Creating a National System of Time-Variable Competency-Based Medical Education

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) have emerged as a meaningful framework for achieving competency-based medical education (CBME). However, little is known about how to adapt EPAs to large-scale, multispecialty, system-wide implementations. The authors describe the design and experience of creating such a system based on EPAs and the Van Melle Core Components Framework for all accredited training programs under the auspices of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The resulting design is a unique configuration and use of EPAs, called Royal College EPAs. Others looking to implement EPAs for large-scale health professions education systems may want to consider this design approach.

Parents' knowledge, attitude and practice towards children's vaccination in Lebanon: role of the parent-physician communication

Background

One of the most effective public health interventions in the world is immunization. However, some parents doubt its usefulness and safety. Many factors influence their decision to vaccinate, including their sociodemographic characteristics, their trust in the public health system, the parent-physician relationship, their level of knowledge and their attitudes towards vaccination. Our objective was to determine the factors, especially the parent-physician communication, associated with parental knowledge, attitudes and practices of their children’s vaccination.

Methods

Three thousand five hundred parents (father, mother or both) of children aged between 1 month and 15 years were approached by a trained personnel who performed the data collection through personal interviews (February–April 2019).

Results

The response rate was 79.5%. The results of the multivariable analysis showed that a better patient-physician communication was significantly associated with higher knowledge, better attitude and practice. Better knowledge was significantly associated with better attitude, whereas better knowledge and attitude were significantly associated with better practice.

Conclusion

Our study shows the importance of good physician-patient communication in improving knowledge, attitude and practice of parents towards their children’s vaccination.