Neuroscience
Some countries are worried that so many of their doctors are coming to work in the UK. Now Adrian Furnham and colleagues have highlighted another concern regarding the NHS’ increasing dependence on foreign doctors. They report that white British people have a strong preference to be treated by a doctor trained here in the UK.
Presented with a list of eight general practitioners, including their names, age and place of training, 395 white British men and women showed a strong preference for doctors trained in the UK rather than in Asia. Presented with a list of consultants, this preference remained, but to a lesser extent, perhaps because patients realise they have less choice when it comes to consultants.
In contrast to early research in this area, men showed a stronger preference than women to be seen by a doctor of the same sex, perhaps reflecting the fact so many more doctors are female now. The participants didn’t show any preference for older versus younger doctors if they were trained in the UK, but if they were trained in Asia, they showed a preference for an older doctor.
“It is important to establish the extent and nature of any adverse effects resulting from a patient being unable to see a doctor of his or her choice”, the researchers concluded.
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Furnham, A., Petrides, K.V. & Temple, J. (2006). Patient preferences for medical doctors. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11, 439-449.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
Pick a doctor, any doctor
Some countries are worried that so many of their doctors are coming to work in the UK. Now Adrian Furnham and colleagues have highlighted another concern regarding the NHS’ increasing dependence on foreign doctors. They report that white British people have a strong preference to be treated by a doctor trained here in the UK.Presented with a list of eight general practitioners, including their names, age and place of training, 395 white British men and women showed a strong preference for doctors trained in the UK rather than in Asia. Presented with a list of consultants, this preference remained, but to a lesser extent, perhaps because patients realise they have less choice when it comes to consultants.
In contrast to early research in this area, men showed a stronger preference than women to be seen by a doctor of the same sex, perhaps reflecting the fact so many more doctors are female now. The participants didn’t show any preference for older versus younger doctors if they were trained in the UK, but if they were trained in Asia, they showed a preference for an older doctor.
“It is important to establish the extent and nature of any adverse effects resulting from a patient being unable to see a doctor of his or her choice”, the researchers concluded.
__________________________________
Furnham, A., Petrides, K.V. & Temple, J. (2006). Patient preferences for medical doctors. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11, 439-449.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
--
Advertisement:
We can help you pick a doctor. Come to our medical search engine to find the best medical websites on the Internet. You can find medical information on diabetes and cholesterol at Healthline.com.
--
- Why It's So Difficult To Reassure People With Medically-unexplained Symptoms
Doctors face a fundamental hurdle when seeking to reassure patients with medically-unexplained symptoms that they are physically well. Apparently such patients have a problem remembering information about how likely it is that they or other people have...
- Trying To Predict Who Will Be A Happy Doctor
Being a doctor can be incredibly stressful and more than a fifth of junior physicians wish they'd never taken medicine in the first place. Moreover, there's evidence showing that stressed doctors are bad doctors, so it would make sense if applicants...
- Somatization Disorder
From today's New York Times: Doctors Give Hope to Patients With Long Histories of Unexplained Symptoms By DAN HURLEY 22 August 2006 People with a long history of medically unexplained symptoms — aches, pains, fatigue, dizziness and other complaints...
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Kirsten Emott is an MD from British Columbia who also writes poetry. The March 2010 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry has published a poem of hers that was originally printed in The Naked Physician: Poems About the Lives of Patients and Doctors...
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This week Lancet Psychiatry published a long term follow-up study of the PACE trial assessing psychological interventions for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME - it is available at the website following free registration On reading it, I was struck by...