The treatment of substance abuse as a context for teaching professionalism

[摘要] There are few environments as personally and professionally challenging as a general practice that registers only patients (and their children) with a substance abuse problem. The surgery where I work as a salaried GP is one of two such practices on Teesside offering general medical services to about 1400 patients registered with one of two GPs and a team of clinical nurse specialists. The premises are dilapidated and cramped, but staff morale is high. Medical challenges abound. A ‘typical’ morning might include assessing a client newly discharged from prison and already addicted again; infant immunisations; the story of a teenager who raised her siblings when her mother walked out and who started selling drugs in order to buy food for the family; a lad with regular seizures who never makes it to outpatient appointments; a middle-aged woman who ‘self-treats’ with glibenclamide because ‘it makes her feel less depressed’.

[学科分类] 卫生学