Evaluation of biopsychosocial approaches of assistant doctors at Dicle University Faculty of Medicine

Introduction and Aim: Biopsychosocial approach suggests that the individual's health condition is partly influenced by the interactions of biological, psychological, and social processes. This approach evaluates the individuals on the point of view of life style, feelings, environment, perspective of diseases and physical conditions by contrast with biomedical approach. Biopsychosocial approach should be the basic professional attitude for physicians. Physicians should apply the biopsychosocial approach in the best way in terms of the continuing relationship they establish with their patients for their profession and the continuity of the service they provide. This model tells physicians that there may be biochemical and morphological changes in patients' emotional states, life goals, attitudes towards diseases, social environments and beliefs. It also concludes that the clinical method should be patient-centered. The patient-centered approach is based on the physician's involvement in the patient's world and the physician's ability to see the illness from the patient's view. In this study, we aimed to determine the extent to which Dicle University specialist students use the biopsychosocial approach in their clinical practice. Material and Methods: Our study is a cross-sectional type, descriptive and analytical research. The study was carried out between December 2017 and March 2018 with the addition of Dicle University specialist students. Questionnaires were administered by face-to-face interview method during interview.Information on the purpose and method of the study was given. In our study, two internationally accepted scale (Patient Practitioner Orientation Scale, The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy) and a survey study including questions in relation with sociodemographic characteristics was conducted. In the sociodemographic questionnaire, gender, age, marital status, the duration of study as a physician, the number of patients per day, the time to leave per patient, the general hope levels of the physicians, and prosperity levels are questioned. The Patient Practitione Orientation Scale and the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy are applied later. Results: A total of 203 resıdent participated in our study. 143 (70%) of the participants were male and 60 (30%) of them were female. According to branch distribution, 8 resident physicians (3,9%) from psychiatry, 21 (10,3%) from family medicine, 104 (51,2%) from other internal branch and 70 (34,5%) from surgical branch participated in the study. The ages of the participants ranged from 25 to 41. In the first subgroup of the Patient - Physician Orientation Scale, which is used in our study, average score of psychiatry resident physicians was 3,67±0,99, family medicine specialist students 3,92±0,67, other internal branches 3,98±0,65, surgical branches 3,83±0,61. In the second subgroup, which is defined as the care in the same scale, the average score of psychiatry specialization students was found to be 3,20±0,45, family medicine specialist students 3,68±0,54, other internal branches 3,49±0,60, and surgical branches 3,68±0,58. The results of the Jefferson scale used to determine the level of empathy in our study are found as psychiatry 78,25±14,78, family physician 67,71±14,69, other internal branches 72,03±13,46, surgical branches 70,87±15,24. Conclusions: The biopsychosocial approach is primarily an elemental approach model in branches such as family medicine and psychiatry and should be applied to other internal and surgical branches as well. In this study; we tried to compare these approaches of different branch specialist students. By conducting similar studies, the awareness of this area will be increased and related issues in the literature will be enriched. Keywords: Patient-centered care, biopsychosocial model, empathy, family physician, psychiatrist, other internal and surgical branches.