Academic Unit of General Practice, Australian National University, Garran, ACT 2605, Australia.
Academic Unit of General Practice, ACT Health/Australian National University, Garran, ACT 2605, Australia.
Aust J Prim Health. 2022 Oct;28(5):399-407. doi: 10.1071/PY21301.
GPs are integral to the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, providing education and administering vaccines. We sought to describe how counselling relating to COVID-19 vaccination was impacting Australian general practice consultations.
We conducted an online, mixed-methods, cross-sectional survey of Australian community-based primary care from 7 to 15 July 2021. This survey, number 15 in a series of recurrent cross-sectional surveys conducted over a 14-month period, explored how counselling relating to COVID-19 vaccination was impacting general practice consultations, through multiple selection and open text responses; it also included questions on respondent and practice characteristics, and pandemic-related stress and strain. We calculated descriptive statistics for quantitative variables, and analysed free-text responses using an inductive content analysis approach.
We received 73 responses (72 GPs) across all states/territories. Discussions with patients about COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination were common, increasing the duration of routine consultations by 6min on average (s.d. 2.9). Respondents described the impact of the resulting time pressures, and the stress and challenges of participating in COVID-19 vaccine communication and administration. Although our results are illuminating, they are limited by the small sample, with some different characteristics from national estimates, an uncertain response rate and the inability to pilot the survey prior to distribution.
The significant impact on general practice consultation from COVID-19 vaccine counselling is on a background of ongoing pandemic-related stress and strain. With a strong track record of population vaccination, GPs are well-placed to deliver COVID-19 immunisations to the Australian population. However, they must be represented in planning and coordination, to reduce the overall burden on primary care.
全科医生是 COVID-19 疫苗接种工作的重要组成部分，他们提供教育并接种疫苗。我们旨在描述与 COVID-19 疫苗接种相关的咨询如何影响澳大利亚的全科医疗咨询。
我们于 2021 年 7 月 7 日至 15 日对澳大利亚社区初级保健机构进行了一项在线、混合方法、横断面调查。这是在 14 个月期间进行的一系列反复横断面调查中的第 15 次调查，旨在通过多种选择和开放文本回答，探讨与 COVID-19 疫苗接种相关的咨询如何影响全科医疗咨询；它还包括有关受访者和实践特征以及与大流行相关的压力和紧张的问题。我们计算了定量变量的描述性统计数据，并使用归纳内容分析方法分析了自由文本响应。
我们在所有州/地区收到了 73 份回复（72 名全科医生）。与患者讨论 COVID-19 疫苗和接种疫苗的情况很常见，使常规咨询的持续时间平均增加了 6 分钟（标准差 2.9）。受访者描述了由此产生的时间压力的影响，以及参与 COVID-19 疫苗沟通和管理的压力和挑战。尽管我们的结果具有启发性，但由于样本量小，与全国估计值有一些不同的特征，不确定的回复率以及在分发之前无法进行调查试点，因此存在一定的局限性。
COVID-19 疫苗咨询对全科医疗咨询产生了重大影响，这是在持续的大流行相关压力和紧张的背景下发生的。由于有接种人口的良好记录，全科医生非常适合为澳大利亚人口提供 COVID-19 免疫接种。但是，他们必须在规划和协调中得到代表，以减轻初级保健的整体负担。
