General practitioner residency consultations: video feedback analysis

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyse longitudinally two decades of Portuguese general practitioner (GP) residents’ consultation features, such as consultation lengthestimating its major determinantsas well as to compare with GP residents from other Western practices. Methods: This pilot study followed a retrospective and descriptive design, comprising of the analysis of videotaped consultations with real patients from GP residents (southern Portugal), between 1990 and 2008. Main studied variables were consultation length and purpose, participant demographics and residency site characteristics. Results: From 516 residents, 68.0% were females, mainly between 26-35 years old (50.6%). Female patients’ proportion equalled doctors’, with the most frequent age group being the 46-65 years old (41.3%). The consultation took on average 22 minutes and 22 seconds, with no significant differences by year and residency location. Main consultation purposes were previous scheduling (31.6%) and acute symptoms (30.0%). Duration was consistently longer than practising GPs from other countries, keeping in mind the supervised practice. Significant and positive predictors of consultation length were number of attendants and patients’ frequency at the residency site. Conclusions: South Portugal GP residency program consultations were lengthier in comparison to similar practice in Europe and other Western countries. Length correlated preferably with patient related variables than with professionals’, while confirming the longitudinal homogeneity in the residency consultation format for the last two decades.