[General practioners and patients' general life problems].
BACKGROUND
Many contact general practitioners (GPs) about non-medical problems in their lives; a situation which may be frustrating for GPs.


METHODS
Semi-structured in-depth interviews with six Norwegian GPs by e-mail. The interviews were analysed according to a discourse analysis of which role the GPs considered they had, whether they saw themselves as therapists and how they perceived the personal strain related to working in general medicine.


RESULTS
The majority of GPs did not distinguish clearly between somatic and more general life-related problems. Nevertheless, they defined medical problems as quite strictly somatic and saw themselves mainly as experts in somatic medicine. They described themselves more as spiritual advisers (pastor-like) than as psychotherapists. Some meant that their work had given them more self- confidence and made them more tolerant, but many said they felt helpless in their role as doctors.


CONCLUSIONS
GPs are doctors for all people. They have to relate to healthy and sick individuals with various medical and general life problems, and often experience a discrepancy between their medical competence and the challenges they meet.
Nessa
John
J
john.nessa@isf.uib.no
Schei
Edvin
E
Stensland
Per
P
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003376:Counseling; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D010819:Physician's Role; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires