TY - JOUR T1 - A qualitative study of final-year medical students' perspectives of general practitioners' competencies AU - Landström, B. AU - Mattsson, B. AU - Rudebeck, C.E. KW - general practitioner KW - medical students KW - student' KW - s perspective KW - reflective writing PY - 2011/09/23 Y1 - 2011/09/21 VL - 2 N1 - doi: 10.5116/ijme.4e79.b49a DO - 10.5116/ijme.4e79.b49a M3 - doi: 10.5116/ijme.4e79.b49a JO - Int J Med Educ SP - 102 EP - 109 PB - IJME SN - 2042-6372 UR - http://www.ijme.net/archive/2/students-perspectives-of-general-practitioners-competencies/ L1 - http://www.ijme.net/archive/2/students-perspectives-of-general-practitioners-competencies.pdf N2 - Objectives: To investigate final-year medical students' perspectives of general practitioners' competencies. A further aim of the study was to investigate which type of clinical problems is properly managed by GPs according to students. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study of 49 final year medical students from two programmes. Reflective writing statements were used to collect data. Qualitative content analysis was employed to analyse data. Results: Three themes were identified to explain the conditions of a general practitioner (GP). They are: 'prerequisites', 'patients´ problems' and 'competence and clinical judgment' which reflect the specific features of primary care, presentation of symptoms by patient and the way that GPs approach an actual encounter. Conclusions: The students valued the importance of unselected patient problems, straightforwardness in contact and care as the characteristics of a competent GP. They viewed patients with different approaches and related their observations to problems of fragmentation within this large area of medical care. This is a period in the training of students in which students' views of general practice are formed. ER -