S. Miilunpalo et al., STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES IN HEALTH COUNSELING IN FINNISH PRIMARY HEALTH-CARE, Patient education and counseling, 25(3), 1995, pp. 317-328
Representative samples of Finnish health centres and of their physicia
ns, nurses and physiotherapists were selected for a comprehensive surv
ey on the professionals':work characteristics, health education attitu
des and counseling practices. The main objectives of the study were to
study the degree of implementation of patient counseling, with specia
l reference to the national goals in health policy and to analyze the
determinants of counseling practices in terms of predisposing, enablin
g and reinforcing factors. Broadly defined patient counseling was freq
uent in the contacts with all 3 professional groups and no differences
in counseling frequency were found between different sizes of health
centres. However, the objective of implementing counseling in every pa
tient contact, with the incorporation of guidance regarding healthy li
ving habits in it, recommended in the national health policy goals, wa
s only partially realized. There were distinct differences between the
3 professional groups in counseling attitudes, topics, methods and pu
rposes. These differences reflect, to a great extent, the differences
in the professional tasks and the basic training between the 3 groups
and also differences in the characteristics of patient contacts. These
findings indicate a need for further in-service training in the metho
ds of patients counseling, as well as restructuring the health care de
livery system to allow more time for counseling, better continuity bet
ween contacts and more co-work between the members of primary care tea
ms.