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

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.