Safeguarding Compassion in Virtual Family Physician Care

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of virtual family medicine care is evolving. It can be tempting to consider only the technological aspects of virtual care; we argue we must attend to compassion's essential role in virtual family medicine care. This research aimed to understand the components contributing to compassionate family medicine virtual care and how these were demonstrated.

We conducted a qualitative Constructivist Grounded Theory study with 2 components; individual interviews with patients and family physicians (FP), and Collaborative Discussions, informed by the interviews, that brought patients and FPs together. Data collection and analysis were iterative using a constant comparative analysis.

We recruited nineteen patient and fourteen FP participants for the first component and 6 patient and 4 FP participants for the second. We identified 4 themes: Conveying virtual compassion through actions; External factors affecting virtual compassion; Virtual visits extending compassionate care; and Role of the patient-FP relationship. These themes can be characterized as a stance that FPs assume in their practice of virtual care.

We highlight 4 themes important to the delivery of compassionate virtual care. We provide specific actions FPs may consider in delivering virtual care. Offering virtual visits was viewed as a compassionate bridge between in-person visits.

Our findings support that it is possible to convey compassion in virtual visits including telephone interactions. As virtual care evolves, our findings can support patients and family physicians to safeguard compassion so that it remains a hallmark of care for all modes of delivery.