The consultation and referral process. A report from NEON. Northeastern Ohio Network Research Group.
Adult; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Ohio; Adolescent; Aged; Child; Cross-Sectional Studies; United States; Prospective Studies; *Medicine; Physicians; *Communication; Interprofessional Relations; *Specialization; Family; *Family Practice/statistics & numerical data; *Referral and Consultation/statistics & numerical data; Ambulatory Care; Preschool
BACKGROUND: Consultation and referral are essential components of the practice of primary care. Despite this, little is known about the factors that contribute to the success of a referral. We examined the short-term outcomes of communication between family physicians and consultants during the referral process. METHODS: The study setting was six family practice centers in northeastern Ohio. All eligible physicians at each center participated in data collection by means of a card study. Data was recorded on any patient who received a referral to a physician or nonphysician provider during the month of July 1994. One year later, referrals were followed up by physician questionnaire. RESULTS: Three hundred nine of 5172 total patients were referred (5.97 referrals per 100 office visits). At follow-up, the family physicians reported that 63% of patients had visited the consultant, 14% had not, and the physician had no knowledge of the actions taken by the other 23%. The referring physician received feedback from the consultant regarding 55% of the patients referred. Receipt of feedback was strongly related to communication by the family physician to the consultant at the time of referral. Physicians who received feedback were the most satisfied with communication from the consultant and the care their patient had received. CONCLUSIONS: Primary care physicians can influence the likelihood of receiving feedback from a consultant by initiating communication with the consultant. A referral wherein the physicians involved do not communicate with one another results in physician dissatisfaction. Primary care physicians must practice strategies to improve the referral process.
Bourguet C C; Gilchrist V; McCord G
The Journal of Family Practice
1998
1998-01
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Job satisfaction of physicians with congruent versus incongruent specialty choice.
*Career Choice; *Job Satisfaction; *Medicine; *Specialization; Adult; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Predictive Value of Tests
Choosing a specialty within the occupation of medicine is problematic given the number of available specialty choices. A need exists for the development and modification of inventories to be used to help students with selecting a medical specialty. Furthermore, ratings of job satisfaction, regardless of specialty, are mixed with some physicians regretting choosing medicine as a career. Despite its use in medical specialty counseling, research is lacking regarding the Medical Specialty Preference Inventory (MSPI). We examined the predictive validity of the MSPI and compared job satisfaction of physicians (N=51) whose specialty was correctly (i.e., congruent) versus incorrectly (i.e., incongruent) predicted by the MSPI. The MSPI correctly predicted the specialty for 33%. Congruent physicians had higher job satisfaction than incongruent physicians. Results of this study may help individuals who provide medical specialty counseling or who are involved in designing tools and implementing programs to assist students with medical specialty decision making.
Borges Nicole J; Gibson Denise D; Karnani Rajil M
Evaluation & the health professions
2005
2005-12
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0163278705281071" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1177/0163278705281071</a>
The Almost Right Word: The Move From Medical to Health Humanities.
*Health; *Medicine; *Terminology as Topic; Curriculum; Humanities/*education; Humans; Interdisciplinary Studies
Since the emergence of the field in the 1970s, several trends have begun to challenge the original assumptions, claims, and practices of what became known as the medical humanities. In this article, the authors make the case for the health humanities as a more encompassing label because it captures recent theoretical and pedagogical developments in higher education such as the shift from rigid disciplinary boundaries to multi- and interdisciplinary inquiry, which has transformed humanities curricula in health professions. Calling the area of study health humanities also underscores the crucial distinction between medicine and health. Following a brief history of the field and the rationales that brought humanities disciplines to medical education in the first place-the "why" of the medical humanities-the authors turn to the "why" of the health humanities, using disability studies to illuminate those methodologies and materials that represent the distinction between the two. In addition, the authors make note of how humanities inquiry has now expanded across the landscape of other health professions curricula; how there is both awareness and evidence that medicine is only a minor determinant of health in human populations alongside social and cultural factors; and finally, how the current movement in health professions education is towards interdisciplinary and interprofessional learning experiences for students.
Jones Therese; Blackie Michael; Garden Rebecca; Wear Delese
Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
2017
2017-07
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001518" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1097/ACM.0000000000001518</a>