Beliefs, attitudes and practices of physicians in patient situations: Online survey conducted in Latin American countries

Abstract

The invulnerability of the physician as a social myth, fear of facing and underestimation of his physical and mental ailments, hinder the management of his disease. Objective: to determine the beliefs, attitudes and practices of the physician as a patient in Latin American countries. Material and Methods: a descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out using an online survey that generated a total of 533 effective responses from 21 countries in the region. Results. The majority was female 57,6%, the mean age of the participants was 46,5 years and the specialty with the highest participation was internal medicine 48,4%. The mean age of the participants was 46,5 years and the specialty with the highest participation was internal medicine (48,4%), and 47,3% did not have a family doctor and 7,5% responded that they did not have health insurance. In the line of belief, the majority of the respondents 61,5% considered that it is more difficult to treat a colleague as a patient, and 67,9% admitted the importance of spiritual and religious actions in case of illness. As for the vulnerability of physicians to illness, fear of changing their status to patient and loss of autonomy, 95,5% responded affirmatively. In relation to attitude, 79% responded that they would look for a physician of their own specialty, 93,8% would obey medical orders in their entirety and 98,8% would not ask for a change of protocol or procedure. Likewise, 59,9% would report a colleague who is not in their full capacity and 75% would disclose the health status of another colleague if it endangered their life or that of their patient. In relation to practice, 43,7% would treat their first-degree relatives; 21,5% would continue to work even with an ailment; 37% would make their own indication for diagnostic tests; 21,4% would self-medicate; and 4,3% and 7,7%, respectively, would change prescriptions and disregard the recommendations of their treating physician. Conclusion: physicians as patients are afraid of being sick and losing their autonomy, many do not have a general practitioner or health insurance, give importance to spiritual and religious actions, tend to look for a physician of their own specialty and are willing to accept medical orders, even though they can also decide to self-medicate and indicate their own diagnostic tests.