Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
The Canadian Medical Protective Association, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
BMC Prim Care. 2023 Sep 20;24(1):192. doi: 10.1186/s12875-023-02147-w.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, family physicians faced challenges including travel restrictions for patients, lockdowns, diagnostic testing delays, and changing public health guidelines. Given that 95% of Canadian physicians are members of the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), the CMPA's telephone helpline - which offers peer-to-peer support - provides valuable insights into family physicians' experiences during the pandemic.
We used a content analysis approach to identify and understand family physicians' questions and concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic expressed during calls to the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) telephone helpline. Calls were classified with preliminary codes and subsequently organized into themes. We collected aggregated data on calls, including province, call date, and whether the physician self-identified having hospital-based activities as part of their practice. Findings from the analysis were explored alongside family physician calls per month (call volume).
Between 01 and 2020 and 31 December 2021, 2,272 family physician calls related to the pandemic were included for content analysis. We identified six major themes across these calls: challenging patient interactions; COVID-related care; the impact of the pandemic on the healthcare system; virtual care; physician obligations and rights; and public health matters. COVID-related call volumes were highest early in the pandemic especially among physicians without major hospital affiliation when family physicians practiced with little guidance on how to balance patient care and scarce resources in the face of a novel pandemic.
This research provides unique insight on the effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on family medicine in Canada. These results provide insights on the needs and information gaps of family physicians in a public health crisis and can inform preparedness efforts by public health agencies, professional organizations, educators, and practitioners.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，家庭医生面临着各种挑战，包括患者出行限制、封锁、诊断检测延迟以及不断变化的公共卫生指南。鉴于加拿大 95%的医生都是加拿大医疗保护协会（CMPA）的成员，该协会的电话热线——提供同行支持——为了解家庭医生在大流行期间的经历提供了有价值的见解。
我们使用内容分析方法，识别和理解家庭医生在拨打加拿大医疗保护协会（CMPA）电话热线时表达的与 COVID-19 大流行相关的问题和关注点。通话按初步代码分类，然后组织成主题。我们收集了有关通话的汇总数据，包括省份、通话日期以及医生是否自行确定其执业活动中是否包含医院活动。分析结果与家庭医生每月的通话量（通话量）一起进行探讨。
在 2020 年 1 月至 2021 年 12 月 31 日期间，共纳入了 2272 个与大流行相关的家庭医生通话进行内容分析。我们在这些通话中确定了六个主要主题：具有挑战性的医患互动；与 COVID 相关的护理；大流行对医疗保健系统的影响；虚拟护理；医生的义务和权利；以及公共卫生事项。COVID 相关的通话量在大流行早期最高，尤其是在那些没有主要医院附属关系的医生中，当时家庭医生在面对新型大流行时，几乎没有关于如何平衡患者护理和稀缺资源的指导，实践受到影响。
这项研究提供了加拿大家庭医学受 COVID-19 大流行影响的独特见解。这些结果提供了家庭医生在公共卫生危机中的需求和信息差距的见解，并为公共卫生机构、专业组织、教育工作者和从业者的准备工作提供了信息。
