Premium
Older People's Perceptions of Their General Practitioner
Author(s) -
Keller Judith,
Slee JoAnne
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-6612.2001.tb00347.x
Subject(s) - older people , faith , perception , metropolitan area , qualitative research , psychology , gerontology , social psychology , nursing , medicine , sociology , social science , philosophy , theology , pathology , neuroscience
Objective : As part of a larger study into the health and well‐being of older people, their relationships with health and community service providers were explored. This paper focuses on how older people viewed their relationship with their general practitioner (GP) .Method : 49 older people in metropolitan Melbourne were interviewed using qualitative research, via in‐depth interviews .Results : Most participants described their relationship with their GP as being very important to them. Many described their GP as a friend and key components of the relationship were faith and trust. Good communication skills, on the part of the GP, were important. Consumerist attitudes were generally not apparent and many of the older people interviewed would find the expectation to behave as a consumer very threatening .Conclusions : Similar to previous studies, most of the older people preferred a very strong trusting relationship with their GP, and it was one of the most important relationships in their lives .