TRAINING GENERAL PRACTITIONNERS-FAMILY MEDECINE RESIDENTS: THE CONTRIBUTION OF BALINT GROUPS

Introduction and Objectives : General Practitioners (GPs) approach health problems in their physical, psychological and socio-cultural dimensions. In France, the conditions of the GPs exercise are badly known by medical students, whose clinical clerkship takes place mostly in a hospital environment. However, GP residents (GPRs) will be committed to persons rather than to a particular body of knowledge, group of diseases, or special technique. Our objective is to improve their interpersonal skills to better enable them to perform a patient-centered approach. Methods : Since 2006, the General Medicine Department of Paris Diderot University proposes to GPRs to participate in seven sessions 2 hours Balint group. Each group, leaded by a GP Professor and a French Balint Society’s member, is composed by at most 12 volunteer. By narrating their experience of clinical situations, GPRs can share their difficulties, reflect on their own relational styles and enhance their abilities of listening and understanding others. Results and Conclusions : During these 10 years, GPRs evaluate anonymously the contribution of these groups to their training. These qualitative evaluations show the interest of this setting for GPRs, notably regarding relational skills
. The most frequently approached themes are : ethical dilemma, misdiagnosis, medical error, managing resources (overdiagnosis and overtreatment), emergency situations, solo decision-making, patient non-compliance, palliative care and the impact of professional practice on personnal lives. 
Discussing clinical cases improve GPRs competence to understand subjective aspects of doctor-patient relationships and enable them to better handle demanding situations. Balint groups contribute to the quality of clinical clerkship.