HOW DO physicians perceive patients in primary care?

Introduction: In the primary level of health, the patient-physician relationship has a central position and the physician provides all interventions through the relationship he/she establishes with the patient. Although the relationship of physicians with their patients is tried to be evaluated objectively, general personality structure, prejudices about different groups, and views on human nature determine the physician's perception of the patient and are effective for good care and satisfactory results. In our study, perceptions and implicit thoughts of primary care physicians about patients were tried to be obtained. Method: In our research, using the qualitative method and phenomenological design, in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 people in different age groups, residing in different regions of Izmir and practicing medicine in regions with different socio-demographic characteristics. 18 open-ended questions prepared earlier were asked. After transforming the obtained information into data, content analysis was performed to analyze the data. Results: Family physicians state that they perceive patients differently. While the physicians perceived the patients positively as "people who came to benefit from their own medical knowledge" and "with whom they felt close"; the titles that physicians perceived patients negatively can be summarized as "wanting to take advantage of their professional powers", "trying to manage and directing them", "potentially harming them", "patients that they are afraid of harming" and "undesirable" people. Patients were also expressed as "burdens" and "customers". Conclusion: Physicians distinguish the reason for the patient's application as "right" or "unfair" and they perceive patients with positive characteristics, largely due to their own feelings and thoughts, as closer to them. The fact that patients are seen as a potential threat and patients who are not in their job description are perceived as people who try to abuse themselves or as a burden are the issues emphasized by physicians.