Iranian Physicians' Experience of Participation in a Balint Group Trial: A Qualitative Study

Qualitative Balint group Experience General physician Iran

Authors

  • Taraneh Taghavi Psychosomatic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
  • Azadeh Malekian
    azadeh.malekian@gmail.com
    Psychosomatic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4282-0221
  • Mousa Alavi Associate Professor, Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
  • Hasan Shahoon Psychosomatic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
  • Hamid Afshar Professor, Psychosomatic Research Center AND Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
  • Farzad Goli Professor, Psychosomatic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences AND Danesh-e-Tandorosti Institute, Isfahan, Iran AND Energy Medicine University, California, USA
  • Carl Eduard Scheidt Professor, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Family Therapy, Albert Ludwig University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany
Vol 6, No 3: 2019
Qualitative Study(ies)
July 25, 2019

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Balint Work is getting introduced and Balint Group Trials are being held in Iran in recent years. This is the first study of a Balint group trial participated by Iranian General Practitioners (GPs). This was a qualitative study to explore the themes which feature the GPs' described experience of their participation. A phenomenological approach was applied to examine the GPs' experience of participation in a seven-session Balint-group-trial. The participants were eight Iranian GPs working in the primary health-care network of Natanz-Iran. A focus group and in-depth semi-structured interviews were applied and the transcribed.  Verbatim were analyzed through a phenomenological explorative and descriptive process by a three-membered research team. Three ground themes and four main-themes emerged as the main features through which the participant-GPs had explained their experience. The main themes were1) Improving the Skills and Wisdom of Doctor-Patient-Relationship, 2) Exceptional Training Method/Learning Experience, 3) Emotional healing for doctors, 4) Job Morality Inspirations. Iranian physicians described their participation in a Balint group trial as a missing, needed and valuable experience of different sort of a peer-discussion-group, an insight-inducing and skill-improving one and an emotionally-supportive one. Minor particularities and major similarities were found between the participation experience as portrayed by Iranian physicians and by physicians of other countries. The study also adds a demonstration of the trans-cultural nature of the Balint group experience.

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