What Comprises Clinical Experience in Recognizing Depression?: The Primary Care Clinician's Perspective

Is there any difference between how you recognize depression now and when you were a novice?

What specifically is different between now and when you were a novice?

What do you mean when you say that experience helps you or that you have learned from experience?

We have talked with a few clinicians so far, and it seems that experience may be an important condition for how they practice and interact with patients.

Does this make sense to you?

Could you give me an example of how you interact differently with your patients now compared to when you were a novice?

At what point in your practice did you realize that you have changed the way you interact with your patients?

Some clinicians told us that dealing with patients' emotions is not always comfortable, and some mentioned that it got easier as they practiced.

Does this make sense to you?

Could you tell me what the process was for you to become more comfortable with dealing with emotions?

Some clinicians told us that patients do not necessarily disclose their depression and that sometimes they need to dig a little bit to figure out the underlying issues for the patient's depression. They told us that “as you practice” you will know with whom you need to go further and when to do that.

Does this make sense to you?

Could you give me an example of situations when you delved deeper than just the patient's stated issues?

What was it about experience or your practice taught you to do that? How would you advise or teach a novice doctor about how to do that?