Physician, general medicine

Generalist medical practitioners diagnose, treat and prevent illness, injury and other physical or mental impairments in humans by applying the principles and procedures of modern medicine. Their practice is not limited to particular categories of disease or treatment methods, and they may assume responsibility for providing continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families and communities.

• conducting physical examinations of patients and interviewing them and their families to determine their health status;
• ordering laboratory tests, X-rays or other diagnostic procedures and analysing their findings to determine the nature of the disorder;
• providing continuing medical care to patients, including prescribing, administering, advising on and monitoring treatments and preventive measures;
• performing surgical and other clinical procedures;
• advising individuals, families and communities on healthy nutrition and lifestyles that help prevent or treat disease;
• referring patients or families to specialised medical care in hospitals, rehabilitation centres or other health care facilities;
• identifying complications before, during and after childbirth and referring to specialists;
• recording each patient's medical history and exchanging medical information with other health professionals to ensure continuing and comprehensive medical care;
• reporting births, deaths, notifiable diseases and other health indicators to government authorities to meet legal and professional requirements;
• conducting research into human health and medical services and disseminating findings through scientific papers and reports;
• planning and participating in programmes aimed at preventing the occurrence and spread of common diseases.
• Examples of occupations in this unit group:
• Physician
• Physician, general medicine
• Physician, resident in general medicine
• Physician, internal medicine
• Physician, paediatrics
• Physician, emergency medicine