General Practice Flashcards
What is general practice?
Caring for the whole person as well as their illness
The promotion of healthy lifestyles
First point of contact
What are some personal qualities to be a good GP?
Ability to care about people and relatives
Commitment to providing high quality care
Awareness of ones own limitations
Clinical competence
Organisational ability
Ability to work with others
Who owns the practice or building that GPs work in?
GPs themselves or the local NHS organisation
What kind of employment do most GPs have?
Self emplyed, either owning or running a business of their own in partership with others
What are responsibilities of GPs as a partner?
Running the business affairs
Providing adequate premises and infrastructure to provide care
Employ and train people
What aspect of the NHS is at the cutting edge of information technology?
General practice
Why is general practice considered to be at the cutting edge of information technology?
Leads the way for the move from paper to digital
What are advantages of moving from paper to digital?
Patient date easily accessed by approved members of staff
Can possibly be accessed remotely
Patient data can be listed, graphed and easily searched
Identify patients for screening programmes
What are the main information systems that GPs use?
Vision
EMIS
What does the use of vision or EMIS allow?
Store appointments
Assist in consultations
Support prescribing
Allow GPs to manage hospital letters and blood results electronically
What is a massive advantage of being a GP, in terms of work-life balance?
Ability to work flexibly
What other roles can GPs take on?
Working at a university as a lecturer
Why do GPs no longer have to provide out of hours services?
It was removed from the national GP contract in 2004
Why would GP practices provide out of hours services?
They get paid extra for doing so
What are GPs required to display in terms of learning?
Life long learning
What must GPs do to show they are still learning and adapting?
Undertake 5 year cycle in order to be revalidated
Meeting held with professional colleague and annual appraisal work is assessed
How do GPs prepare for revalidation?
Reading literature
Attending courses
Performing audits
What does the BMA recommend in regards to revalidation?
Salaried GP contract has time negotiated as protected for appraisal work
Who does the practice team consist of?
Manager
IT/admin staff
Secretarial staff
Reception staff
Nurses
Advanced nurse practitioner
Physician assistants
Health care assistants
General practitioners
GPs can choose a wide variety of career paths, what are some of these?
Parter
Take a special interest such as diabetes
Salaried GP to have better work life balance
Interest in education as a lecturer
Sports doctor for local football team
Why are GP practices well placed to be able to adapt to their communities?
Run by doctors
What is longitudinal care?
Holistic, dynamic and integrated plan that documents important disease prevention and treatment goals and plans
What does longitudinal care mean it is possible to do?
Assist with the neonatal care of a baby at the start of your career and still be looking after them when they turn 40
What are the advantages of getting to know families and them trusting you?
Consultations are quicker and easier
They have confidence in your knowledge and guidance
What is an emotional advantage, and disadvantage of looking after people with chronic conditions?
You get to watch them improve and deteriorate
How many consultations do GPs perform in a professional lifetime?
200,000
What do major problems with communication lead to?
Complaints such as “my doctor wont listen to me”
Misdiagnosis
What does effective communication improve?
Patient satisfaction
Patient recall
Patient understanding
Patient concordance
Outcomes of care
What are the 4 essential components of clinical competence?
Knowledge
Communication skills
Physical examination
Problem solving
What are 3 broad types of skills need for effective communication?
Content skills
Perceptual skills
Process skills
What are content skills?
What doctors communicate, the substance of their questions and responses, the information they gather and give, the treatments