Exploring the Principles of Family Medicine
Family physicians are highly skilled doctors who focus on a patient-centric clinical method and work to integrate sensitive, skillful and appropriate techniques to diagnose and identify disease. They demonstrate a good understanding of the experience that patients have of illness, and they can also have a beneficial impact on the quality of life of the patient by investigating and minimizing the impact that an illness has on a person.
Family physicians use their understanding of human development and family in order to help to develop comprehensive approaches for managing illness, and helping families and/or cope with disease or sickness.
They can work with a patient to help them reach common ground in terms of the definition of problems, as well as the goals for treatment, and the role of the physician and the patient in management. Thy have skill in providing information to patients in a way that helps them to remain autonomous, and also empowers them to be in charge of their own health care needs.
They’re experts in a range of common problems, and can help patients directly in the community. They see a lot of conditions including ones that are less common but treatable emergencies, and some that are life-threatening. They use evidence-based health care.
A Community Discipline
Family medicine is based within the community and there are a lot of community factors that can influence it. The family physician needs to be able to respond to the changing needs of the people that they work with, and needs to adapt to complex circumstances. They work within a defined practice population and are a valuable resource to that population.
The family physician views their practice as a population that is at risk and works to maintain the health of those people when they are visiting the office and also when they are not. They make use of information, medical records and their own knowledge and skills in order to plan out activities and systems that will protect the health of their users.
They have a patient-physician relationship that plays a central role in the job that they do and that dominates their actions. They understand and appreciate the human condition and how people respond to sickness. They know that they have strengths and weaknesses, and limitations in what they can do when it comes to providing people with effective care.
A family physician will have regular contact with the patients that they work with, and over time they will become an important part of the community and develop relationships with families in the area. This puts them in a good position to advocate for their patients.