Photovoice-inspired qualitative analysis of photographs from family physicians’ practice in Italy: a pilot study

Alice Serafini, Irene Bruschi, Giuseppe Parisi, Viviana Forte, Luca Lenzotti, Mirko Pasquini, Martina Belluto, Luca Ghirotto

Keywords: #healthcarearchitecture #humanization #photovoice

Background:

The environment and furniture of a medical workplace can influence both patients and health teams satisfaction and healthcare structures projected in a careful way are an important point for humanization of care. Several studies about these topics have been performed in hospital settings, but only a few in primary care.

Research questions:

How do family physicians choose to equip their practice? What do they think about their practice equipment and furniture?

Method:

we design a qualitative pilot study inspired from the photovoice methodology. We collected data through an anonymous online survey using a snowball sampling approach. In the first part of the survey we collected socio-demographic variables. In the second part we asked participants to upload: firstly one or two pictures of their practices and explain what they liked or not and what they would have changed, secondly a picture of the most important thing in their opinion in the practice adding the explanation why they made that choice. Written answers were analyzed using thematic analysis, while participants’ characteristics through descriptive statistics. A pilot analysis of the visual material is ongoing.

Results:

140 GPs participated in the survey but we obtained only 30 complete responses (79,17% drop out rate). With the thematic analysis of the written responses we identified 5 main themes: environment and atmosphere, customization, furniture and objects, collaboration, hygiene. Each theme contains sub themes that describe positive and negative aspects.

Conclusions:

The participants' answers suggested good practices for setting up a GP-practice. It is important to create a welcoming environment, being careful in choice of colors, furniture and not forgetting to add plants. The practice should include a space for the visit with the bed and the right privacy and a space for consultation. Finally, customize the environment, including personal objects resulted central for gp motivation.

Points for discussion:

What is the best methodology for collecting patient's view about the GP practice's organization?

Are there differences in the practice space's organization across the european countries?