Introduction: The evidence in support of physical activity (PA) as an effective modality in the treatment and management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is promising and quite robust. Consequently, PA promotion is now seen integral to the role of the physician. The challenge however, has been translating PA as a preventive and therapeutic modality into doctor's routine clinical practice. Therefore, it has been proposed that producing future doctors that will be proficient for practice in this regards will require adequate training at the undergraduate medical level. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the PA counselling of newly qualified doctors when in their foundation year to gain more insight into how the undergraduate and foundation training influences their PA counselling practices.
Methodology: A qualitative study was conducted amongst eleven foundation doctors (FDs) recruited by purposive sampling. This sample was representative of FDs from seven different medical schools in the United Kingdom. Semi-structured interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis were undertaken to identify emerging themes and concept from the interviews.
Findings: Three overarching themes were developed from the data. They include:PA counselling attitude and practices, barrier to Pa counselling and enablers to PA counselling in clinical practice.
Conclusion: The attitude and practices of FDs towards PA counselling was poor both in primary and secondary care and this was more evident whilst in the hospital setting. A lack of training and support from clinical supervisors were major reasons for this. However, it was also found that unexplored opportunities exists for FDs to champion PA counselling both in the primary and secondary care settings. Leveraging these opportunities will entail but not limited to only curriculum change and review at both undergraduate and postgraduate medical level. It will involve: adequate mentoring and support by clinical supervisors, understanding of the role of other health professionals in PA promotion and creating an enabling policy that will ensure doctors have time to stay physically active.