RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A nationwide survey of public healthcare providers’ impressions of family medicine specialists in Malaysia: a qualitative analysis of written comments
JF BMJ Open
JO BMJ Open
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e009375
DO 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009375
VO 6
IS 1
A1 Chew, Boon-How
A1 Cheong, Ai-Theng
A1 Ismail, Mastura
A1 Hamzah, Zuhra
A1 A-Rashid, Mohd-Radzniwan
A1 Md-Yasin, Mazapuspavina
A1 Ali, Norsiah
A1 Mohd-Salleh, Noridah
A1 Bashah, Baizury
YR 2016
UL http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e009375.abstract
AB Objective To examine impressions of public healthcare providers/professionals (PHCPs) who are working closely with family medicine specialists (FMSs) at public health clinics.Design Cross-sectional study.Setting This study is part of a larger national study on the perception of Malaysian public healthcare professionals on FMSs (PERMFAMS).Participants PHCPs from three categories of health facility: hospitals, health clinics and health offices.Main outcome measures Qualitative analyses of written comments of respondents’ general impression of FMSs.Results The participants’ response rate was 58.0% (780/1345), with almost equal proportions from each public healthcare facility. A total of 23 categories for each of the 648 impression comments were identified. The six emerging themes were: (1) importance of FMSs; (2) roles of FMSs; (3) clinical performance of FMSs; (4) attributes of FMSs; (5) FMS practice challenges; (6) misconception of FMS roles. Overall, FMS practice was perceived to be safe and able to provide effective treatments in a challenging medical discipline that was in line with the current standards of medical care and ethical and professional values. The areas of concern were in clinical performance expressed by PHCPs from some hospitals and the lack of personal attributes and professionalism among FMSs mentioned by PHCPs from health clinics and offices.Conclusions FMSs were perceived to be capable of providing effective treatment and were considered to be important primary care physicians. There were a few negative impressions in some areas of FMS practice, which demanded attention by the FMSs themselves and the relevant authorities in order to improve efficiency and safeguard the fraternity's reputation.