Telephone prescribing of antibiotics: General practitioners' views and reflections
Background: In this era of increasing problems with resistance, rational prescribing of antibiotics is extremely important. Therefore, rationales for prescribing require analyses. The objective of this study was to explore general practitioners' (GPs') reasons for prescribing antibiotics b...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:eurpub:11/3/260 2023-05-15T16:51:14+02:00 Telephone prescribing of antibiotics: General practitioners' views and reflections BJÖRNSDÓTTIR, INGUNN EBBA HOLME, HANSEN 2001-09-01 00:00:00.0 text/html http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/11/3/260 https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/11.3.260 en eng Oxford University Press http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/11/3/260 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/11.3.260 Copyright (C) 2001, Oxford University Press Articles TEXT 2001 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/11.3.260 2013-05-28T08:46:29Z Background: In this era of increasing problems with resistance, rational prescribing of antibiotics is extremely important. Therefore, rationales for prescribing require analyses. The objective of this study was to explore general practitioners' (GPs') reasons for prescribing antibiotics by telephone. Methods: Qualitative analysis of semistructured interviews with and observations of GPs in Iceland enquiring about the rationale for prescribing antibiotics was used. Ten GPs were interviewed for 45 min to 2 h each including three who were observed between 3 and 10 h. Results: The GPs generally indicated a restrictive attitude to telephone prescribing, although they all gave examples of their prescribing by telephone. The prescribing was mostly but not always based on some kind of diagnosis. The factors influencing diagnosis and prescribing were largely non-clinical: knowledge of the patients as persons, including their complaint threshold, confidence in their descriptions, the GPs' communication strategies and the travelling distance between patients and GPs. The clinical factors were the patients' description of signs and symptoms and knowledge of their history. Prescriptions not based on diagnosis were ‘therapeutic trial’ or GP-approved self-medication. Sometimes, the GPs requested to see a patient even though the diagnosis was based on history, signs and symptoms. Conclusions: Multiple factors affected the decision-making process when antibiotics were prescribed by telephone, most of which were non-clinical. The diagnosis, if there was one, was generally presumptive. GPs' general attitudes correlated well with current knowledge but were contrasted by the reality of their daily work conditions. Text Iceland HighWire Press (Stanford University) The European Journal of Public Health 11 3 260 263 |
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Articles BJÖRNSDÓTTIR, INGUNN EBBA HOLME, HANSEN Telephone prescribing of antibiotics: General practitioners' views and reflections |
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description |
Background: In this era of increasing problems with resistance, rational prescribing of antibiotics is extremely important. Therefore, rationales for prescribing require analyses. The objective of this study was to explore general practitioners' (GPs') reasons for prescribing antibiotics by telephone. Methods: Qualitative analysis of semistructured interviews with and observations of GPs in Iceland enquiring about the rationale for prescribing antibiotics was used. Ten GPs were interviewed for 45 min to 2 h each including three who were observed between 3 and 10 h. Results: The GPs generally indicated a restrictive attitude to telephone prescribing, although they all gave examples of their prescribing by telephone. The prescribing was mostly but not always based on some kind of diagnosis. The factors influencing diagnosis and prescribing were largely non-clinical: knowledge of the patients as persons, including their complaint threshold, confidence in their descriptions, the GPs' communication strategies and the travelling distance between patients and GPs. The clinical factors were the patients' description of signs and symptoms and knowledge of their history. Prescriptions not based on diagnosis were ‘therapeutic trial’ or GP-approved self-medication. Sometimes, the GPs requested to see a patient even though the diagnosis was based on history, signs and symptoms. Conclusions: Multiple factors affected the decision-making process when antibiotics were prescribed by telephone, most of which were non-clinical. The diagnosis, if there was one, was generally presumptive. GPs' general attitudes correlated well with current knowledge but were contrasted by the reality of their daily work conditions. |
format |
Text |
author |
BJÖRNSDÓTTIR, INGUNN EBBA HOLME, HANSEN |
author_facet |
BJÖRNSDÓTTIR, INGUNN EBBA HOLME, HANSEN |
author_sort |
BJÖRNSDÓTTIR, INGUNN |
title |
Telephone prescribing of antibiotics: General practitioners' views and reflections |
title_short |
Telephone prescribing of antibiotics: General practitioners' views and reflections |
title_full |
Telephone prescribing of antibiotics: General practitioners' views and reflections |
title_fullStr |
Telephone prescribing of antibiotics: General practitioners' views and reflections |
title_full_unstemmed |
Telephone prescribing of antibiotics: General practitioners' views and reflections |
title_sort |
telephone prescribing of antibiotics: general practitioners' views and reflections |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/11/3/260 https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/11.3.260 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/11/3/260 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/11.3.260 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2001, Oxford University Press |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/11.3.260 |
container_title |
The European Journal of Public Health |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
260 |
op_container_end_page |
263 |
_version_ |
1766041349048500224 |