Improvement strategy to improve the professional performance of family physicians in the care of the frail elderly

Introduction: The physiological process of aging leads to risk situations, including frailty, therefore, primary care professionals must achieve the necessary competence to face it successfully. Objective: To design an improvement strategy to improve the professional performance of the family physician in the care of the frail elderly. Method: A two-phase research was carried out: the first phase was descriptive, observational and mixed (quantitative-qualitative) to diagnose the performance status of the professionals, the population consisted of 28 family physicians. Four dimensions and 18 indicators were evaluated and their methodological triangulation was carried out to establish problems and potentialities. In a second phase of development and technological innovation, the principles of the proposed strategy, its modeling, design and main results are established and supported. Results: There is little evidence of professionals' mastery of the criteria of frailty, its symptoms and signs and therapeutic approach. It was also found low frequency of realization of health promotion activities and insufficient use of the instruments for multidimensional assessment, The overcoming strategy is modeled with four stages, each with specific objectives and actions to be developed. Conclusions: An insufficient performance of professionals in the comprehensive care of frail adults before applying the educational strategy is verified, in the comparative observations after its implementation, a remarkable improvement in performance and satisfaction is evidenced, which makes it possible to recognize the validity of the proposed strategy.