Knowledge and skills required to perform point-of-care ultrasonography in family practice - a modified Delphi study among family physicians in Slovenia.

BACKGROUND: More and more family physicians (FPs) are using point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) in Europe. Still, there is no general consensus about the specific knowledge and skills that a FP should acquire in order to effectively perform POCUS. The objective of this study was to identify indications for the use of POCUS among FPs, explore the barriers of its use and provide an expert opinion of FPs on knowledge and skills required to effectively implement POCUS in family practice. METHODS: A modified two-round Delphi study was carried out among FPs using POCUS in Slovenia. RESULTS: 21 FPs were invited to participate in the study. A total of 13 FPs (62%) responded the round-one questionnaire and 10 (48%) completed the round-two questionnaire. Results show a large variability of indications for the use of POCUS in family practice, the most common being acute abdominal conditions, lung ultrasonography and eyeballing echocardiography. In contrast, the results show little variability in barriers for the use of POCUS, the most common being lack of time, inaccessibility of specific training programmes and financial issues. There is a strong consensus on the knowledge and skills needed to perform POCUS. Panellists agreed on a learning medical knowledge, technical skills and expressed a need for individual consultations and tutorship options. CONCLUSION: This study proves that although POCUS is used in family practice for a wide variety of indications with a significant number of barriers, there is a strong consensus on what a FP needs to know to effectively perform POCUS.

The New Renaissance of Family Medicine: Myth or Reality.

Renaissance is the term used for the societal movement that marked the end of the Middle Ages. With the development of science came the rediscovery of the works and values of ancient scholars. This brought enormous development in all areas of society, including education. Man became the measure of all things, humanism became important again, and there was a blossoming of science and art. The 'renaissance of family medicine' took place approximately 50 years ago as a response to over-technical (even inhumane) medicine. Family medicine focused on the patient and was, as such, rediscovered and developed as a scientific discipline. In 2022 Wonca Europe launched a new document that set out the core values of family medicine, initiating a discussion about the 'new' renaissance of family medicine. The idea implies that, due to the changes brought about by rapid technical advances and recent global events, family medicine will develop further. However, the really intriguing question is whether these rapid and dramatic changes will actually result in a new renaissance of family medicine or whether they will result in its decline.

What Palliative Patients and their Carers Need at Home and what a Primary Health Care Team can Offer - First Pilot Study in Slovenia.

Introduction: Spending one's last days and dying at home is a common wish of people with a life-limiting illness. Home-based palliative care is essentially organised at the primary level to meet the needs of palliative patients and their carers. The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of home-based palliative care, focusing on those who identify palliative patients, what their needs are and how this affects their length of life and site of death. Methods: This retrospective cohort study analysed routinely collected notes of patients enrolled in home-based palliative care between 2015 and 2021. Palliative care was provided by a primary health care team in a predominantly rural area. Results: This study included 107 palliative patients, aged 71±11.4 years, 94% of whom had cancer. They were enrolled in palliative care by their primary care team or by hospital staff. The enrolment by hospital staff (3%) resulted in significantly shorter survival (p=0.008). Patients lived an average of 66 days, and 65% of patients died at home. Home-based palliative care was found to respond to both basic and complex palliative medical needs, but was weaker in addressing socio-economic, psychological or spiritual issues. Conclusion: This exemplary primary-level palliative team provided home-based palliative care that has improved over the years in terms of all the observed quality indicators: early enrolment, the proportion of patients dying at home and the ability to address needs. Specialised mobile palliative teams, hospitals and other palliative care settings complement home-based palliative care.

What influences on their professional development do general practice trainees report from their hospital placements? A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The clinical learning environment is important in GP specialty training and impacts professional development. Uniquely for GP trainees, about half of their training periods occur in a hospital environment, which is not their final workplace. There is still little understanding of how hospital-based training influences GP's professional development. OBJECTIVES: To seek the views of GP trainees on how their hospital experience contributes to their professional development as a GP. METHODS: This international and qualitative study seeks the views of GP trainees from Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania, and Slovenia. Semi-structured interviews were performed in the original languages. A joint thematic analysis in the English language resulted in key categories and themes. RESULTS: From the four themes identified, GP trainees were found to experience additional challenges on top of the service provision/education tensions, which are common to all hospital trainees. Despite these, the hospital rotation component of GP training is valued by trainees. A strong finding of our study is the need to ensure that learning from the hospital placements is placed firmly in the context of general practice, e.g. GP placements prior or parallel with the hospital placements, educational activities resourced by GPs during their hospital experience, encouraging hospital teachers to have greater awareness of the educational needs of GPs, including an awareness of their training curriculum. CONCLUSION: This novel study highlights how hospital placements for GP trainees could be enhanced. Further study could be broadened to recently qualified GPs, which may uncover new areas of interest.

Factors associated with a high level of unmet needs and their prevalence in the breast cancer survivors 1-5 years after post local treatment and (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy during the COVID-19: A cross-sectional study.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of unmet needs in post-treatment breast cancer survivors and identify sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial variables associated with reported unmet needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 430 post-treatment breast cancer survivors, ranging between 1 and 5 years after the procedure, completed the Cancer Survivors' Unmet Needs (CaSUN) questionnaire from September 2021 and January 2022. The multivariate logistic analysis identified factors associated with at least one reported unmet need in the total CaSUN scale and specific domains. Results: A total of 67% of survivors reported at least one unmet need. The most frequently reported unmet needs were the lack of accessible hospital parking (43%) and recurrence concerns (39.5%). The majority of reported unmet needs relate to comprehensive care (44%), followed by the psychological and emotional support domain (35.3%). Younger age (OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.92-0.99; p < 0.001), three or more comorbidities (OR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.11-0.71, p < 0.01), a lower quality of life (OR = 0.06, 95% CI = 0.01-0.47, p < 0.01) and low resilience (OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.93-0.99) were associated with a high level of unmet needs in the multivariate regression model. Results are presented for factors associated with a high level of unmet needs for comprehensive cancer care and psychological and emotional support domain. Conclusion: A high prevalence found in our study could be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, where patients may have missed adequate follow-up care, although comparing to studies done in non-pandemic time is difficult. Family physicians should be more attentive toward younger cancer survivors and those with more comorbidities as both characteristics can be easily recognized in the family practice.