Narrative accounts of primary care practitioners in a time of COVID-19 A research collaboration between the University of Birmingham and the University of Aberdeen, supported by the Health Foundation

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, rapid and wide-ranging changes have been made to general practice and primary care teams, and their ways of working.

Professor Judith Smith at the University of Birmingham and Professor Louise Locock at the University of Aberdeen are leading a project, with support from the Policy team at the Health Foundation, to capture the real-time stories of GPs, practice nurses and managers at this time of COVID-19. Participants have been recording and sharing their reflections on a regular basis and these narratives will examine the wider effects of changes within primary care teams.

The overall aim of the research is to explore how it is for these primary care professionals to be at work during a pandemic, what is satisfying about the job and also the challenges and frustrations that face this workforce. Once the main active phase of the pandemic is over, in-depth interviews will be conducted with our respondents to capture their overall reflections on the experiences of being a primary care practitioner during the COVID-19 crisis.

Contact details

Please contact Emily Burn (e.burn@bham.ac.uk) for further information about the project.