Necessary level of skills and abilities of family physicians from decision-makers’ perspective in transitional Kosovo

• Authors: Fitim Skeraj , Katarzyna Czabanowska , Iris Mone , Gazmend Bojaj , Zejdush Tahiri , Genc Burazeri
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

PL

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the necessary level of abilities and competencies of family physicians from the decision-makers’ perspective in Kosovo, a post-war country in the Western Balkans.Methods: Our study was conducted in May-July 2013 and included a nationwide representative sample of 100 decision-makers operating at different primary health care institutions or public health agencies in Kosovo (63 men aged 48.6±5.5 years, and 65 women aged 46.2±5.7 years). A structured self-administered questionnaire was employed aiming to assess the necessary level of skills, abilities and competencies of family physicians in Kosovo regarding  different domains of the quality of health care. The questionnaire included 37 items organized into six subscales/domains. Answers for each item of the tool ranged from 1 (“novice” physicians) to 5 (“expert” physicians). An overall summary score (range: 37-185) and a subscale summary score for each domain were calculated for each participant. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of the instrument, whereas Mann-Whitney’s U-test was employed to assess sex-differences in the mean values of the summary score of 37-item instrument and the summary scores of each of the six subscales.Results: The internal consistency of the whole scale (37 items) was Cronbach’s alpha=0.92. The summary score of the 37-item instrument was higher in men than in women (162.3±17.9 vs. 156.1±17.5, respectively, P=0.071). The subscale scores were all higher in men than in women, a finding which was borderline statistically significant for the “patient care and safety” domain only (33.4±4.4 vs. 32.0±4.0, respectively, P=0.057). There was a weak correlation between the overall summary score of the tool and the work experience of decision-makers (Spearman’s rho=0.234, P<0.001).Conclusion: In the context of Kosovo, this study provides important evidence on the expected skills and competencies of family physicians from the decision-makers’ viewpoint. Future studies in Kosovo should compare our findings related to the necessary skills and competencies vis-à-vis the actual self-perceived skills and competencies of family physicians.

Keywords

PL

kompetencje, lekarz rodzinny, podstawowa opieka zdrowotna

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Zdrowie Publiczne i Zarządzanie
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 2

Dates

published

2013

online

2013-07-22

Contributors

author

Fitim Skeraj

author

Katarzyna Czabanowska

author

Iris Mone

author

Gazmend Bojaj

author

Zejdush Tahiri

author

Genc Burazeri