Primary health care organizations are where community members can most likely receive socially proper care that is sustainable and accessible to all. Primary health care centers are the place of the first contact of the population with health care organizations. Based on the importance of this organization to the entire community, each medical worker is an essential part of the team.
For the care team approach, especially if there are people with chronic diseases in the community, the most convenient is multidisciplinary team composition. According to Hedden, Banihosseini, Strydom, and McCracken (2020), it can include a general practitioner or a therapist, a pediatrician, a nurse, a social worker, and a medical psychologist. Well-organized teamwork can free up the time of highly qualified doctors. This will allow doctors to focus on taking care of the most challenging patients (for example, patients with chronic diseases). This explains the importance of having nurses and social workers in the team. A general practitioner or therapist is the most suitable specialist for the community since small hospitals cannot afford to contain narrow-profile specialists (Shi, 2019). Therefore, a doctor who has some knowledge in all areas of medicine is a good solution. Due to the need for a unique approach to the treatment of children, a pediatrician is an essential member of the medical team. A medical psychologist performs several vital functions, starting with diagnosis, motivation, psychotherapy of the patient, and implementing various psychosocial rehabilitation programs. In most cases, combinations are possible; for example, a nurse and a social worker can be replaced by a nurse with in-depth training in social assistance (Haesebaert et al., 2018). A social worker and a medical psychologist can also be substituted by a medical psychologist with in-depth training in social service.
Currently, it is essential to develop new approaches to providing medical care to the population at the outpatient level. This dictates the need for continuous improvement of medical care, taking into account international standards and globalization. Thus, it is necessary to study the interaction within the medical team currently taking place at the level of the primary community of medical and sanitary care.
References
Haesebaert, J., Samson, I., Lee-Gosselin, H., Guay-Bélanger, S., Proteau, J. F., Drouin, G., … Légaré, F. (2018). How to engage patients in research and quality improvement in community-based primary care settings: protocol for a participatory action research pilot study. Research Involvement and Engagement, 4(30), 243-257.
Hedden, L., Banihosseini, S., Strydom, N., & McCracken, R. (2020). Modern work patterns of “classic” versus millennial family doctors and their effect on workforce planning for community-based primary care: a cross-sectional survey. Human Resources for Health, 18(67), 124-130.
Shi, L. (2019). Health policy for diverse populations. In J. Utley (Ed.), Introduction to health policy (pp. 155-201). Chicago, US: Health Administration Press.