Exploring resilience in family physicians working in primary health care in the Cape Metropole

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Exploring resilience in family physicians working in primary health care in the Cape Metropole
 
Creator Wagner, Leigh Pather, Michael K.
 
Subject — work satisfaction; physician well-being; family medicine; resilience; family physicians; primary healthcare practice
Description Background: Despite the high prevalence of burnout among doctors, studies have shown that some doctors who choose to remain in primary healthcare (PHC) survive, even thrive, despite stressful working conditions. The ability to be resilient may assist family physicians (FPs) to adapt successfully to the relatively new challenges they are faced with. This research seeks to explore resilience through reflection on the lived experiences of FPs who have been working in PHC.Aim: To explore the resilience of FPs working in PHC in the Cape Metropole.Setting: The study was conducted among FPs in PHC in the Cape Town metropole, Western Cape province, South Africa.Methods: A phenomenological qualitative study involved interviewing 13 purposefully selected FPs working in the public sector PHC in the Cape Metropole. Data were analysed using the framework method.Results: The mean resilience scale was moderate. Six key aspects of resilience were identified: having a sense of purpose, ‘silver lining’ thinking, having several roles with autonomy, skilful leadership, having a support network and self-care.Conclusion: The aspects that contribute to FP resilience are multi-faceted. It entails having a sense of purpose, ‘silver lining’ thinking, having several roles with autonomy, skilful leadership, having a support network and valuing self-care. Our exploration of resilience in FPs in the Cape Metropole corroborates the findings of previous studies. To ensure physician wellness and improved patient outcomes, we recommend that individual and organisational strategies should be implemented in the absence of long-term policy changes.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Stellenbosch University
Date 2019-10-17
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v11i1.1982
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 11, No 1 (2019); 10 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1982/3452 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1982/3451 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1982/3453 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1982/3450
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Leigh Wagner, Michael Karl Pather https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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