Behavior-change action plans in primary care: a feasibility study of clinicians.

Purpose: Collaborative goal-setting--with clinician and patient together deciding on concrete behavior-change goals-may be more effective in encouraging healthy behaviors than traditional clinician-directed advice. This study explores whether it is feasible for clinicians to engage patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in collaborative goal-setting and concrete action planning during the primary care visit.

Methods: Primary care clinicians were trained in goal-setting and action planning techniques and asked to conduct action plan discussions with study patients during medical visits.

Opioids for chronic nonmalignant pain. Attitudes and practices of primary care physicians in the UCSF/Stanford Collaborative Research Network. University of California, San Francisco.

Background: We hoped to determine the attitudes and practices of primary care physicians regarding the use of opioids to treat chronic nonmalignant pain (CNMP). We also examined the factors associated with the willingness to prescribe opioids for CNMP.

Methods: A survey was mailed to primary care physicians in the University of California, San Francisco/Stanford Collaborative Research Network.

Community scavenger hunts.

Interns in an urban family practice program are introduced to the communities of their patients through four half-day community visits which include a "community scavenger hunt." Interns are asked to record their observations of the physical, social, and economic environments of the neighborhoods as they walk through several blocks in groups of two or three. These community visits have heightened the residents' awareness of their patients and the neighborhoods they live in.