Many people associate the term „doctor” with a general practitioner that you see first when anything feels wrong with your health. Although not all doctors are GPs, it’s true that they are the first line of rescue when it comes to general health. It’s the GP that gives you first aid treatment and can send you for further check-ups with specialists. What else do GPs do? Why is their job so important? Why some doctors do anything just so they don’t work as a GP?
Responsibilities
General practitioners respond to patients’ medical problems by referring to their history, carrying out basic diagnosis and investigating them about any possible causes of an illness they came to the clinic with. As such, they are responsible for assessing the general health of the patient and when it is necessary, they are the ones to refer you to see a specialist.
GPs provide continuous healthcare for patients in the local community. As Paragona informs: They work in clinics and hospitals, taking care of the patients even if there are other specialists involved. See more here: http://www.paragona.com
GPs also promote health education in their local community and are often asked to speak about dangers at schools etc. GPs need to constantly improve and refresh their knowledge – they are one of the few medical jobs that actually uses information from all the different medical fields.
Many people don’t realise how much actually goes into work of a general practitioner – constant contact with patients that may not even have health problems at all and tones of paperwork are one of the main reasons not all doctors want to work as a GP in the first place.
Other duties
GPs are there to prescribe you medicine, give you basic knowledge on how to prevent infections and illnesses and warn you of any dangerous symptoms you may show. However, this is not where their job ends. Many GPs work at hospitals doing rounds and interviewing hospital patients – they are taking care of them just as a nurse would, except it’s more of a medical care than anything else.
Working as a GP means having great social skills and being able to reach out to patients who are not willing to share their problems.
After all, anything and everything can cause health problems. It’s up to a GP to be the first one to see, identify and tackle them in a right way.