The role of the staff meeting in resolving professional dilemmas in family medicine: Concealing a diagnosis

Staff meetings are an integral part of the family medicine process but little has been written in the family medicine literature about their utility. In addition to filling administrative or management functions, the staff meeting can be a creative process for growth of staff members and the road to innovative solutions to clinical problems. Presentation of illness narratives is common in staff meetings. This report describes a staff meeting where a difficult doctor-patient narrative was presented by the treating physician. Contributions from all the doctors in the clinic at the meeting led to improved understanding of the problem and a shared sense of wellbeing.