Primary Care Internal Medicine Training and Women's Health

In this study, directors of primary care residency programs were sent a questionnaire that asked for information about their program and examined their perceptions of program curricula and resident mastery of seven preselected topics in women's health. An elective ambulatory gynecology experience was offered in 52% of programs, and 35% of programs had all residents experience such a rotation. All seven selected topics were felt to be important for residents to master, but the prevalence of structured teaching experiences and resident mastery for each topic varied widely. For the majority of programs, domestic violence was not a curricular component. However, 44% of respondents spontaneously commented that they were expanding their curriculum in the area of women's health.