ArticleBMJ open2021
Why do doctors seek peer support? A qualitative interview study.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- A qualitative analysis of the barriers and facilitators to physicians and trainees seeking help for suicidality.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2026Article
- Thematic Analysis of Clinician Documentation Surrounding Treatment Discussions and Decision-Making in Patients With Desmoid Tumors.Cancer medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Understanding peer support: a qualitative interview study of doctors one year after seeking support.BMC health services research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo understand how doctors reflect on when and why they seek help from an organised peer-support service.
designData were collected through audiotaped, qualitative, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were analysed with systematic text condensation.
settingA peer-support service accessible to all doctors in Norway.
participantsThirteen doctors were interviewed after attending a counselling service in fall 2018. They were selected to represent variation in gender, demographics, and medical specialty. Doctors were excluded if the interview could not be held within 10 days after they had accessed peer support.
resultsThe doctors' perspectives and experiences of when and why they seek support and their expectations of the help they would receive are presented, and barriers to and facilitators of seeking support are discussed. Three categories of help-seeking behaviour were identified: (1) 'Concerned-looking for advice' describing help seeking in a strenuous situation with need for guidance; (2) 'Fear of not coping any longer' describing help seeking when struggling due to unreasonable stress and/or conflict in their lives; and (3) 'Looking for a way back or out' describing help seeking when out of work. Expectations to the help they would receive varied widely. Motivations for seeking help had more to do with factors enabling or restricting help-seeking than with the severity of symptoms.
conclusionsMany different situations lead doctors to seek peer support, and they have various expectations of the service as well as diverse needs, motivations and constraints to seeking peer support. Further research is warranted to investigate the impact of peer support and how to tailor the service to best suit doctors' specific needs.
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Registered trials
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