Counseling by Family Physicians: Implications for Training.

Area of Science:

• Primary Care Medicine
• Psychosocial Interventions
• Physician Training

Background:

• Family physicians commonly encounter patients with psychosocial problems and those needing health behavior change.
• The role and practice of counseling by family physicians remain areas for exploration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate family physicians' current practices in providing psychosocial interventions.
• To understand their beliefs regarding counseling efficacy, preferences for counseling providers, and necessary skills.
• To examine their experiences with counseling training.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey was administered to 230 faculty and residents across 11 family medicine residency programs in Florida.
• Data were collected on counseling practices, perceived effectiveness, preferred providers, skills, and training.

Main Results:

• 81% of physicians regularly provided counseling, particularly for psychosocial problems (85%) and health behavior change (94%).
• Faculty reported more frequent counseling and greater willingness to address depression/anxiety compared to residents.
• 56% found their counseling effective; 60% felt adequately trained, often through observation or co-counseling.

Conclusions:

• Family physicians actively engage in counseling for psychosocial and behavioral health, with varying confidence in its effectiveness.
• Faculty demonstrate higher counseling rates and confidence than residents, suggesting potential training gaps.
• Current training often involves observation and learning specific techniques like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Stages-of-Change.
• Further research is needed to optimize practical counseling models and training for family physicians.