Guide to Clinical Preventive Services

The physician's degree of resourcefulness, i.e., the ability to deal skillfully and promptly with new situations, is important for changing the health behaviors of patients within the constraints of a brief office visit. This quality, however, was in short supply among 15 primary care physicians selected for their interest in preventive medicine. The physicians tended to rely on a single approach for changing specific health behaviors of patients, restricted referrals to community services and other health specialists, relied almost exclusively on fear for motivating patients and expressed considerable pessimism about changing the health behaviors of older patients. The physicians uniformly reported that their inadequate education and the lack of reimbursement influenced how they counseled their patients. A good place to begin to rectify this situation is the required reading of the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services for medical students and residents, and continuing education opportunities for practicing physicians.