Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums
  • My alerts
The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • RSS feeds
  • Follow cfp Template on Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
Research ArticleResearch

RESPECT from specialists

Concerns of family physicians

Donna Manca, Stanley Varnhagen, Pamela Brett-MacLean, G. Michael Allan and Olga Szafran
Canadian Family Physician October 2008; 54 (10) 1434-1435.e5;
Donna Manca
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: dmanca@planet.eon.net
Stanley Varnhagen
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Pamela Brett-MacLean
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
G. Michael Allan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Olga Szafran
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • eLetters
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading
Submit a Response to This Article
Compose eLetter

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Statement of Competing Interests
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

Vertical Tabs

Jump to comment:

  • Author's Response to: Respect for FPs/GPs by other specialists in developing countries
    Donna Manca
    Published on: 21 October 2008
  • Respect for FPs/GPs by other specialists in developing countries
    Emmanuel M Monjok
    Published on: 15 October 2008
  • Published on: (21 October 2008)
    Page navigation anchor for Author's Response to: Respect for FPs/GPs by other specialists in developing countries
    Author's Response to: Respect for FPs/GPs by other specialists in developing countries
    • Donna Manca, MD MClSc FCFP. Director of Research Program in Family Medicine

    Thank-you for sharing the experiences of GPs in Nigeria. This certainly sounds like a major issue and we hope the relationships between the GPs/FPs and their specialist colleagues will improve.

    Competing Interests: None declared.
  • Published on: (15 October 2008)
    Page navigation anchor for Respect for FPs/GPs by other specialists in developing countries
    Respect for FPs/GPs by other specialists in developing countries
    • Emmanuel M Monjok, MD MPH, Research Assistant Professor

    I read your interesting findings regarding respect for FPs/GPs by their specialist colleaques.I was amazed because I was of the opinion that these problems existed only in developing countries. Many other complex issues make the issue of respect from specialists even more glaring in developing countries.

    In Nigeria, for example, the specialty of General Practice was officially recognized in 1980. There are still...

    Show More

    I read your interesting findings regarding respect for FPs/GPs by their specialist colleaques.I was amazed because I was of the opinion that these problems existed only in developing countries. Many other complex issues make the issue of respect from specialists even more glaring in developing countries.

    In Nigeria, for example, the specialty of General Practice was officially recognized in 1980. There are still many doctors who have not undergone any GP residency training who are still referred to as GPs. There are now a few GPs who have done the GP residency training, and though technically GPs, this small group are now referred to as Family Physicians. There are 2 associations, i.e Association of General Practitioners of Nigeria and the Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria. With this kind of complexity in the specialty, there is no common force to tackle the problem of respect from specialist colleaques.

    Furthermore, with the poor primary as well as secondary health structures in this country,coupled with inadequate human resources, more GPs/FPs are engaged in hospital work and fuctioning as "mini-surgeons, mini-obstetricians,mini- gynaecologists, mini-orthopedic surgeons, mini-ophthalmologists, etc. There have been instances where patients' lives were saved through emergency surgery by an experienced "GP surgeon" only for the patient to be told by a specialist surgeon that the operation was done by a GP and "thank God you came out alive" or "he is only a mere GP". I suspect that there is more "bad mouthing" from specialists in Nigeria than in Canada or the USA.

    There are also fewer opportunities for academic GP/FP, because there is only one medical school in Nigeria that has General Practice as an academic department. Nigeria has only produced one full Professor of General Practice so far. Even then, this sole GP department has had to, on several occasions, fight hard to continue to exist among other specialist departments. On at least one occasion, a senior medical school official advocated for scrapping the entire General Practice Department, as well as the teaching in general practice.

    However, the solutions in your article would go a long way to improve the understanding of the specialty of GP/FM by other specialists, improve the relationship between GPs/FPs and their specialist colleagues and thus increase bilateral respect.

    Emmanuel Monjok MD MPH

    Formerly, GP with obstetric interest (Nigeria); currently, Research Assistant Professor of Public Health (USA)

    Show Less
    Competing Interests: None declared.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Family Physician: 54 (10)
Canadian Family Physician
Vol. 54, Issue 10
1 Oct 2008
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on The College of Family Physicians of Canada.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
RESPECT from specialists
(Your Name) has sent you a message from The College of Family Physicians of Canada
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the The College of Family Physicians of Canada web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
RESPECT from specialists
Donna Manca, Stanley Varnhagen, Pamela Brett-MacLean, G. Michael Allan, Olga Szafran
Canadian Family Physician Oct 2008, 54 (10) 1434-1435.e5;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Share
RESPECT from specialists
Donna Manca, Stanley Varnhagen, Pamela Brett-MacLean, G. Michael Allan, Olga Szafran
Canadian Family Physician Oct 2008, 54 (10) 1434-1435.e5;
Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • ABSTRACT
    • METHODS
    • FINDINGS
    • DISCUSSION
    • Acknowledgment
    • Notes
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • eLetters
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • Whose right?
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • Juste des medecins de famille: Le cursus cache a lencontre de la medecine familiale dans les facultes de medecine
  • Just family doctors: Hidden curriculum against family medicine in medical schools
  • Engaging primary care physicians in care coordination for patients with complex medical conditions
  • Primary care specialty career choice among Canadian medical students: Understanding the factors that influence their decisions
  • Dautres facons de savoir: Lanalyse critique du discours pour reexaminer la collaboration intraprofessionnelle
  • Other ways of knowing: Using critical discourse analysis to reexamine intraprofessional collaboration
  • A nationwide survey of public healthcare providers impressions of family medicine specialists in Malaysia: a qualitative analysis of written comments
  • How the Medical Culture Contributes to Coworker-Perpetrated Harassment and Abuse of Family Physicians
  • A tale of two cultures: Specialists and generalists sharing the load
  • Debiasing the hidden curriculum: Academic equality among medical specialties
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Primary care reform in Alberta
  • Administrative burden in primary care
  • Burden of administrative responsibilities in primary care
Show more Research

Similar Articles

Subjects

  • Collection française
    • Résumés de recherche

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archive
  • Collections - English
  • Collections - Française

For Authors

  • Authors and Reviewers
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Permissions
  • Terms of Use

General Information

  • About CFP
  • About the CFPC
  • Advertisers
  • Careers & Locums
  • Editorial Advisory Board
  • Subscribers

Journal Services

  • Email Alerts
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • RSS Feeds

Copyright © 2025 by The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Powered by HighWire