Join the webinar, next Sunday, organised by EYFDM in collaboration with Emergency Medicine SIG were we’ll talk about EM Ultrasound, Aggressive Patient and Difficult Patient and Primary Care Emergency Room.
Sunday, 24th September 2023, 2:30UTC
Register here.
This is the seventh webinar organised in the collaborative webinar series between WONCA Young Doctors Movements and Working Parties/ Special Interest Groups.
A Position Statement on Family Medicine
Ana Cristina Franco Spinola
Family Medicine is at its core a continuum of care – provided to individuals and their families throughout their life cycles, right in their communities. This wide scope of action, and closeness, is what makes Family Medicine unique compared with other medical specialties.
Family medicine is at the heart of healthcare, integrating knowledge from different levels of expertise and advocating for patients’ best interests, whilst communicating with them in a close and ongoing conversation.
The celebration of World Family Doctor’s Day is an opportunity for reflection. We strive daily for high quality Family Medicine which is both equitable and sustainable. Family Doctors endure demanding working conditions, and their work-life balance is often negatively affected. The wellbeing of those providing care needs to be advocated for, and given the same priority as technical expertise and up-to-date scientific knowledge.
As the European Young Family Doctors’ Movement, we believe that balanced individuals are an essential component of sustainable health systems.
A Return to Family Medicine for a day
Nick Mamo
For the last year and a half (or so) I’ve been focused on research full-time. Which has meant that, for the most part, I’ve been away from family medicine work.
Back in April, as part of the pre-conference exchange organised by LOVAH (De Landelijke Organisatie van Aspirant Huisartsen – the Dutch Family Medicine Residents’ Association) I spent a day in a Dutch GP practice, to get a sense of what the work is like in the Netherlands. I was sitting in with Erik, a great Family Doctor – I could see throughout the whole day how much he was appreciated, and the effort he put into his work.
This day reminded me what I love about being a family doctor. From the first person to walk through the door, right until the end, complete with a lunchtime walk in the sun enjoying the green grounds around the practice, it was pure, unadulterated Family Medicine.
The first person we see, although coming in to discuss his neck pain, soon burst into tears – he is finding caring for his ill wife very challenging. So, we listen and offer support. And finally, almost comically, we deal with his neck pain.
We have a coffee break with the practice team – a warm environment with one of the team-members jokingly admonishing Erik for not offering me a cup of coffee straight away.
Before lunch, we go on a house call to see a patient with ALS. The gentleman’s daughter sits close by, ready to help out if needed. His son comes in after some time, about to go out and chats a bit with his dad and with the doctor. They know each other well, and the doctor checks in with how things have been going. The gentleman we have come to see has already given us updates about pretty much the whole family.
In the afternoon, we see a gentleman with his partner. As he walks in, he clearly has complex and longstanding medical issues in spite of his young age. The first thing Erik does is apologise profusely – he won’t be able to attend their wedding, but he congratulates them warmly. It is clear throughout the consultation that there is a good relationship from both the patient and his fiancée with Dr Teunissen. The patient’s fiancée is very caring and involved in his care, and the three of them discuss the condition and the management together. During the consultation the GP also congratulates the patient’s fiancée on her weight loss – she has clearly been working on this and she is very proud of her achievements. They also discuss what she should do for prenatal health – they want to start trying for a baby as soon as they are married.
While the Family Doctor is doing some admin tasks, we also discuss a case he is dealing with of a young woman with complex mental and physical health issues, having to coordinate care with lots of different specialists as well as social care. We also discuss the case of an old man with complex palliative care needs: the challenges of dealing with death and supporting families through this process.
Of course, we also see a patient with a UTI, and we do some minor surgery, during which we also have a chat with the patient about his home situation and the challenges he is facing there…
To any family doctor, this seems a rather normal day, and I think it is good to take a moment and reflect on the variety and complexity of the cases we deal with.
For me, however, this day reminded me that the Family Doctor truly is the Heart of Healthcare – on so many levels.
We are the heart of care through being the main contact, coordinating care, liaising, referring, investigating…from the beginning of life right up to the end. We advocate for our patients whether it is by challenging them to take better care of themselves, or by speaking to other healthcare professionals, social care or others, to get what is needed. We are there for the whole family.
And we are the heart by providing an empathetic, personal ear for people to turn to – to share their challenges and seek advice, but also to share their joys.
Happy World Family Doctors’ Day!
We are the new SIG Women’s Health and we would like you to join us and celebrate Women’s Day.
This year we want to make a special mention to all those women who suffer daily the consequences of their environment.
Those women who pay the consequences of living in disadvantage. It can be war, can be peace.
It can be north or south, east to west.
Those women for whom society has thought silence is the best treat to receive.
Those women who are deprived of power of decision, of voice.
Those who cannot vote.
Those women who are not allowed to speak for themselves.
Those women whose opinion is not taken into consideration.
Despite women being briefly half of the world population, we are still considered a minority.
But we can change that.
We can raise our voices together and fight for equity. That gap that we try to close daily can be smaller tomorrow.
We, as doctors, have the exquisite privilege of sharing our opinion and this can be listened to.
We do celebrate Women’s Day.
And we want to keep celebrating every eighth of March.
For us, for them and for the ones who are to come.
Showcase your beautiful research at WONCA Conference Brussels and win the prize money.
Deadline March 20 – up to 1000€ for Preconference & Conference in Brussels.
The Fons Sips Award was created in order to ensure that the heritage and history of the movement was not forgotten and in order to recognise great
work and contribution of its members.
The winner of the biannual Fons Sips Outstanding Achievement Award becomes EYFDM’s nominee for the WONCA World Rising Star Award. It is our privilege and honor to present one of the EYFDM members side by side with other YDM’s candidates to the world audience of family physicians.
Dear Friends,
a big moment for our still young organisation.
The comprehensive process of choosing our future identity was sucessfully completed. The last step, after council selected from strong candidates, was finalising the new logo.
The website is still work in progress and will receive a personalized template and more content needs to be transferred and added in some sections. As this is much simpler now we can assure you there will be more updates than before.
Check out our own preconference overview or head directly to the conference website. The only thing you definitely shouldn’t do is sitting on the fence.
