Explore the vast range of titles available.

PurposeWe sought to understand patients’ care-seeking behaviours early in the pandemic, their use and views of different virtual care modalities, and whether these differed by sociodemographic factors.MethodsWe conducted a multisite cross-sectional patient experience survey at 13 academic primary care teaching practices between May and June 2020. An anonymised link to an electronic survey was sent to a subset of patients with a valid email address on file; sampling was based on birth month. For each question, the proportion of respondents who selected each response was calculated, followed by a comparison by sociodemographic characteristics using χ2 tests.ResultsIn total, 7532 participants responded to the survey. Most received care from their primary care clinic during the pandemic (67.7%, 5068/7482), the majority via phone (82.5%, 4195/5086). Among those who received care, 30.53% (1509/4943) stated that they delayed seeking care because of the pandemic. Most participants reported a high degree of comfort with phone (92.4%, 3824/4139), video (95.2%, 238/250) and email or messaging (91.3%, 794/870). However, those reporting difficulty making ends meet, poor or fair health and arriving in Canada in the last 10 years reported lower levels of comfort with virtual care and fewer wanted their practice to continue offering virtual options after the pandemic.ConclusionsOur study suggests that newcomers, people living with a lower income and those reporting poor or fair health have a stronger preference and comfort for in-person primary care. Further research should explore potential barriers to virtual care and how these could be addressed.

Background Primary care physicians are facing elevated levels of burnout and often struggle to find joy in their work, with fewer physicians choosing primary care as a career. Peer coaching offers a way to enhance professional fulfillment and job satisfaction by fostering connection and support among physicians. In this study, we evaluated a pilot coaching-informed peer support program for family physicians in Ontario. Our evaluation explored whether the program helped increase joy in practice, strengthen professional well-being, and reduce burnout. Methods In the Peers for Joy program, physicians are trained to be “Guides” and support fellow physician “Learners” across 3 meetings to identify their goals and find ways to create joy in their work. To evaluate this pilot program, we used a multi-methods approach including surveys, interviews, and focus groups to explore whether the program increased joy in practice and reduced burnout, as well as its potential impacts on the guides. The primary outcome focused on satisfaction and joy in practice, assessed through the survey question: “How likely are you to recommend this job as a family physician?”. Surveys were analyzed with Anova for continuous variables, Fisher’s exact tests for categorical variables and the weekly one question surveys were analyzed with the Mann Kendall trend tests. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results 32 peer learners and 27 peer guides participated in the pilot from January-April 2024. After participation, both peer learners and peer guides were more likely to recommend their job as a family physician to a friend or colleague (learners increased from 5.5/10 to 7.0, P  = 0.004 and guides from 6.4/10 to 7.5, P  = 0.003). Peer learners reported they joined the program due to burnout and because they wanted to find joy and connection. Peer guides wanted to help their colleagues regain their passion for family medicine. Peer learners described various benefits from participating in the program, including feeling validated, receiving advice on workflow improvements, and encouragement to shift their perspective on their role as a family physician. Peer guides also felt that the experience was fulfilling, that it helped shift their perspective on their role as a family physician, and that they learned valuable coaching techniques that could be applied in their clinical encounters. Conclusion The pilot demonstrated an acceptable and potentially helpful approach to improve family physician resiliency from burnout, promote togetherness, and improve joy in work. As such, the program could be a sustainable approach to peer support for family physicians.