A Qualitative Study on the Difference of Role Expectations of General Practitioners in Functional Communities from the Perspective of Supply and Demand

Background After years of practice, the service of general practitioners (GP) has achieved certain results in the health management of key groups such as the elderly, pregnant women, children, and patients with chronic disease. However, the services of "functional community" groups represented by young and middle-aged working people still needs to be improved. Objective Based on the role theory, this study conducts a qualitative research on the role expectations of GP in functional communities from the perspectives of GP and residents. The aim is to enhance the role image and function of GP and better meet the service demand. Methods From September to November 2023, a semi-structured interview was conducted among 8 GPs and 16 residents of 4 community health service centers in Jiading District, Shanghai, with the method of snowball sampling combined, and a directional content analysis was conducted on the interview results. Results Taking the four important contents of "quality expectation, image expectation, obligation expectation and behavior expectation" in the role expectation theory as the theme, it extracts the 14 sub-themes of clinical ability, work quality, culture, science and education, medical ethics, communication efficiency, work spirit, emotional expectation, treatment service, consultation service, consultation coordination, cost control obligation, service effectiveness, service accessibility and service standardization. It is found that both parties have the same expectation on medical ethics, good communication, life-saving, effective service and standard service, but have different expectations on cost control obligations, and other expectations are different. Conclusion The expectation of consistency between the supply and demand sides stems from the traditional ideal image of general practitioners, and the expectation of difference between the supply and demand sides stems from the misperception of the role and function of family doctors on both sides. The strategy to solve the contradiction between the misperception of family doctors in functional communities and the actual service of family doctors in reality is proposed.