Vol 38, (8) 605-608
Health promotion in Australian general practice - A gap in GP training
Amit Achhra MBBS, MPH(UOW), is a PhD (Med) Candidate, National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales.
BACKGROUND General practitioners are well placed to provide health promotion, both at the individual level and more broadly by addressing socioenvironmental determinants of health. However, important barriers exist which need to be tackled.
OBJECTIVE This article describes the current approach to health promotion by Australian GPs and identifies a gap in GP training and education as an important barrier to health promotion.
DISCUSSION Health promotion by Australian GPs is currently focused on the individual behaviour of patients. To improve the health of individuals, however, it is also vital to tackle the broader socioenvironmental determinants of health. One of the important barriers to a more holistic approach is a lack of understanding about the principles of health promotion among GPs, suggesting a significant gap in their training. Future research should focus on integrating health promotion into the medical curricula at the undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education levels.
Related files
Health promotion in Australian general practice - A gap in GP training (197KB)
To download files on a PC: Right click the link and select 'Save Target As'.
To download files on a Mac: Hold Ctrl, click the link and select 'Download link to disk'.
Help with viewing files