ArticleScandinavian journal of primary health care2012
How does the thought of cancer arise in a general practice consultation? Interviews with GPs.
Article in Scandinavian journal of primary health care, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Understanding the role of GPs' gut feelings in diagnosing cancer in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing evidence.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Pooled it
- When Medicine Gets Irritating: Interactional and Structural Triggers of Uncertainty in Family Medicine Residency Training.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2026Article
- Time Intervals in the Pathway to Diagnosis of Patients with Cancer.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- Article
- What would primary care practitioners do differently after a delayed cancer diagnosis? Learning lessons from their experiences.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Exploring why European primary care physicians sometimes do not think of, or act on, a possible cancer diagnosis. A qualitative study.BJGP open · 2023Article
- Prospective Observational Study on the Prevalence and Diagnostic Value of General Practitioners' Gut Feelings for Cancer and Serious Diseases.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Observational
- Healthcare practices that increase the quality of care in cancer trajectories from a general practice perspective: a scoping review.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2022Article
- General practice - a fertile lagoon in the ocean of medical knowledge.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2021Article
- Patient and GP experiences of pathways to diagnosis of a second primary cancer: a qualitative study.BMC cancer · 2021Article
- GPs' use of gut feelings when assessing cancer risk: a qualitative study in UK primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2021Article
- Challenges in early diagnosis of cancer: the fast track.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2020Article
- GPs' perspectives of the patient encounter - in the context of standardized cancer patient pathways.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2020Article
- Observational
- Article
- Diagnostic knowing in general practice: interpretative action and reflexivity.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2019Article
- Observational
- Article
- Association between GPs' suspicion of cancer and patients' usual consultation pattern in primary care: a cross-sectional study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOnly a few patients on a GP's list develop cancer each year. To find these cases in the jumble of presented problems is a challenge.
objectiveTo explore how general practitioners (GPs) come to think of cancer in a clinical encounter.
designQualitative interviews with Norwegian GPs, who were invited to think back on consultations during which the thought of cancer arose. The 11 GPs recounted and reflected on 70 such stories from their practices. A phenomenographic approach enabled the study of variation in GPs' ways of experiencing.
resultsAwareness of cancer could arise in several contexts of attention: (1) Practising basic knowledge: explicit rules and skills, such as alarm symptoms, epidemiology and clinical know-how; (2) Interpersonal awareness: being alert to changes in patients' appearance or behaviour and to cues in their choice of words, on a background of basic knowledge and experience; (3) Intuitive knowing: a tacit feeling of alarm which could be difficult to verbalize, but nevertheless was helpful. Intuition built on the earlier mentioned contexts: basic knowledge, experience, and interpersonal awareness; (4) Fear of cancer: the existential context of awareness could affect the thoughts of both doctor and patient. The challenge could be how not to think about cancer all the time and to find ways to live with insecurity without becoming over-precautious.
conclusionThe thought of cancer arose in the relationship between doctor and patient. The quality of their interaction and the doctor's accuracy in perceiving and interpreting cues were decisive.
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