A doctor close at hand: How GPs view their role in cancer care

To explore GPs' own views on their role in cancer care.

Qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews.

Norwegian primary care.

The stories of 14 GPs concerning 18 patients were analyzed for core content and abstracted into general ideas, to create a broader sense of the experienced professional role.

The GPs claimed to have an important role in cancer care. In our analysis, three main aspects of GPs' work emerged: first, as a flexible mediator, e.g. between the patient and the clinic, interpreting and translating; second, as an efficient "handyman", solving practical problems locally; and third, as a personal companion for the patient throughout the illness.

The interviewed GPs see their place in cancer care as being close to their patients. In their many tasks we found three main aspects: the mediating, the practical, and the personal.