Family Medicine Education and Rural Health: A Response to Present and Future Needs

The importance of family medicine in providing rural health services has been established for quite some time. The need to train physicians who select the specialty of family medicine is critical at a time when medical student interest in the primary care specialties appears to be diminishing. Renewed efforts by educational institutions and incentives at the state and federal levels will be necessary to assist in the alleviation of shortages of rural physicians. The educational program at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, School of Medicine has achieved a great deal of success in training rural family physicians. A coordinated program effort, featuring the efforts of more than 200 family physicians during the past 15 years, has led to 52.5 percent of all graduates selecting family practice and more than 41 percent choosing practice sites with a population fewer than 20,000. Elements of the program at Duluth could serve as a model for other schools desiring to increase the number of students entering family medicine and rural practice.     

Impact of undergraduate and postgraduate rural training,and medical school entry criteria on rural practice among Australian general practitioners: national study of 2414 doctors

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between rural undergraduate training, rural postgraduate training and medical school entry criteria favouring rural students, on likelihood of working in rural Australian general practice. METHODS: National case-control study of 2414 rural and urban general practitioners (GPs) sampled from the Health Insurance Commission database. Participants completed a questionnaire providing information on demographics, current practice location and rural undergraduate and postgraduate experience. RESULTS: Rural GPs were more likely to report having had any rural undergraduate training [odds ratio (OR) 1.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.32-1.95] than were urban GPs. Rural GPs were much more likely to report having had rural postgraduate training (OR 3.14, 95% CI 2.57-3.83). As the duration of rural postgraduate training increased so did the likelihood of working as a rural GP: those reporting that more than half their postgraduate training was rural were most likely to be rural GPs (OR 10.52, 95% CI 5.39-20.51). South Australians whose final high school year was rural were more likely to be rural GPs (OR 3.18, 95% CI 0.99-10.22). CONCLUSIONS: Undergraduate rural training, postgraduate training and medical school entry criteria favouring rural students, all are associated with an increased likelihood of being a rural GP. Longer rural postgraduate training is more strongly associated with rural practice. These findings argue for continuation of rural undergraduate training opportunities and rural entry schemes, and an expansion in postgraduate training opportunities for GPs.     

Graduate Medical Education for Rural Physicians: Curriculum and Retention

The chronic shortage of rural physicians prompts further consideration of the educational interventions that have been developed to address this issue. Despite rural admission strategies and a variety of undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate curricular innovations, the recruitment and retention of family physicians into many rural areas has not kept pace with the retirement of older general practice physicians. This paper reviews the 1994 American Academy of Family Physicians' rural training recommendations in the light of several recent educational needs assessments. These studies affirm the need for rural residency rotations and the need to maintain and better implement the established rural clinical training guidelines. However, although preparation for rural medical practice has been addressed and is being adequately accomplished in the clinical knowledge and procedural skills areas, instruction and experiences relating to the "realities of rural living" need to be enhanced to increase the retention duration of rural physicians. This can be accomplished with more curricular emphasis on developing community health competencies, including community-oriented primary care (COPC). Physicians who know how to collaborate with community members on health improvement projects have skills that can also facilitate integration and, hence, retention.     

A mini-workshop to train medical students to use a patient-centered approach to smoking cessation

Leaders in preventive medicine and medical education have called for more attention to preventive medicine in medical education curricula. This study describes the implementation of a training program designed to introduce preventive medicine skills into the medical school curriculum. The specific issue addressed was smoking cessation. A two-hour workshop on the patient-centered approach to smoking intervention was presented to medical students during the family medicine rotation of the second-year clinical medicine course sequence. Two of the four student groups in the family medicine clinical rotation received the training and were afforded practice opportunity with at least one smoking patient at the clinical site. The other two groups went through the usual rotation with no special instruction or clinical emphasis on preventive interventions. Second-year medical students expressed positive perceptions of preventive medicine as assessed by self-rating on attributes important to successful preventive practice. These positive perceptions were retained by both groups after the clinical experience. Students with the workshop training were more confident in their smoking intervention skills and performed better overall on an objective clinical evaluation of intervention skills.     

Specialty choices of Kuwaiti medical graduates during the last three decades

INTRODUCTION: This study examined postgraduate specialty training of Kuwaiti medical graduates during 1968 to 1999 and identified their attained professional qualifications to reveal scarcity in some specialties. METHOD: A survey was carried out involving review of the records maintained at the Kuwait Institute for Medical Specialization (KIMS) and the Ministry of Health for all of the trainees who were enrolled in higher training programs for specialization. Information obtained from the records was ascertained through matching with the doctors' career destinations and employment in the recruitment departments of the health sector. RESULTS: A total of 652 Kuwaiti medical graduates attained their higher postgraduate qualifications until 1999. There were more female postgraduates compared with males from 1993 upwards and a drop in 1991 in the number of postgraduates owing to the Gulf War. Specialty differed according to gender: males mostly opted for medicine and surgery, whereas females mainly chose obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and family medicine. The nature of postgraduate qualifications differed according to gender: fewer females undertook academic qualifications. DISCUSSION: The number of Kuwaiti medical graduates with higher professional qualifications significantly increased after 1985 owing to the establishment of KIMS and the Kuwait Faculty of Medicine. The increase in the number of female postgraduates since 1993 is attributable to the social and cultural transitions witnessed by Kuwait. Gender significantly affected the nature of postgraduate studies and the choice of specialty. The pattern of preference of Kuwaiti graduates to specialties was consistent with other parts of the world. Scarcity in some specialties has been revealed and needs to be adjusted.     

Results of the 2005 national resident matching program: family medicine

The results of the 2005 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) reflect a currently stable level of student interest in family medicine residency training in the United States. Compared with the 2004 Match, 19 more positions (66 fewer US seniors) were filled in family medicine residency programs through the NRMP in 2005, at the same time as four fewer (18 fewer US seniors) in primary care internal medicine, seven more in pediatrics-primary care (three fewer US seniors), and 12 fewer (21 fewer US seniors) in internal medicine-pediatrics programs. In comparison, 25 more positions (four more US seniors) were filled in anesthesiology but two fewer (14 fewer US seniors) in diagnostic radiology, two "marker" disciplines that have shown increases over the past several years. Many different forces, including student perspectives of the demands, rewards, and prestige of the specialty, the turbulence and uncertainty of the health care environment, lifestyle issues, and the impact of faculty and resident role models, continue to influence medical student career choices. Seven more positions (57 more US seniors) were filled in categorical internal medicine while 48 more positions (68 more US seniors) were filled in categorical pediatrics programs, where trainees perceive options for either practicing as generalists or entering subspecialty fellowships, depending on the market. With the needs of the nation, especially for rural and underserved populations, continuing to offer opportunities for family physicians, family medicine experienced another slight increase through the 2005 NRMP. The 2005 NRMP results suggest that interest in family medicine and primary care careers continues to be stable.     

Do students from rural backgrounds engage in rural family practice more than their urban‐raised peers?

INTRODUCTION: In a previous prospective study, students from rural backgrounds were found to be significantly more likely to consider rural practice than their urban-raised peers. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the students with rural backgrounds who participated in the original investigation were more likely than their urban-raised peers to be currently engaged in rural family practice. METHOD: In Canada, family doctors have the greatest opportunity to practise in rural communities. Consequently, rural and urban background students from the original study who entered the discipline of family medicine as a career were identified for practice location follow-up. Participants were categorised as either rural (population less than 10 000) or urban practitioners according to the population of the community in which they practised. The proportion of rural and urban background students engaged in rural or urban practice was analysed using chi-square and relative risk probability. RESULTS: A total of 78 students from the original cohort were found to be practising family medicine; 22 of them had been rurally raised. Seven (32%) of the rural background students were practising in a rural community, compared to 7 (13%) of the 56 urban background students (RR = 2.55; P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Rural background students who went on to complete family medicine residency training were approximately 2.5 times more likely to be engaged in rural practice than their urban-raised peers. Altering medical school admission policy to recruit more rural background applicants should be part of a multi-dimensional approach to increasing the number of rural practitioners.     

Results of the 2004 national resident matching program: family medicine

The results of the 2004 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) reflect a leveling in the recent trend of declining student interest in family medicine residency training in the United States. Compared with the 2003 Match, 34 more positions (36 fewer US seniors) were filled in family medicine residency programs through the NRMP in 2004, at the same time as 14 fewer (four fewer US seniors) in primary care internal medicine, 10 more in pediatrics-primary care (one more US senior), and 35 more (38 more US seniors) in internal medicine-pediatric programs. In comparison, one less position (one more US senior) was filled in anesthesiology and seven fewer (five more US seniors) in diagnostic radiology, two "marker" disciplines that have shown increases over the past several years. Many different forces, including student perspectives of the demands, rewards, and prestige of the specialty; the turbulence and uncertainty of the health care environment; liability protection issues; and the impact of faculty and resident role models, continue to influence medical student career choices. A total of 165 more positions (12 more US seniors) were filled in categorical internal medicine while 164 more positions (15 more US seniors) were filled in categorical pediatrics programs, where trainees perceive options for either practicing as generalists or entering subspecialty fellowships, depending on the market. With the needs of the nation, especially for rural and underserved populations, continuing to offer opportunities for family physicians, family medicine experienced a slight increase through the 2004 NRMP. The 2004 NRMP suggests that the trend away from family medicine and primary care careers may be leveling off.     

Results of the 2002 National Resident Matching Program: family practice

The results of the 2002 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) reflect a persistent decline of student interest in family practice residency training in the United States. Compared with the 2001 Match, six fewer positions (103 fewer US seniors) were filled in family practice residency programs through the NRMP in 2002, as well as 48 fewer (30 fewer US seniors) in primary care internal medicine, 1 fewer in pediatrics-primary care (8 more US seniors), and 45 fewer (45 fewer US seniors) in internal medicine-pediatric programs. In comparison, 43 more positions (70 more US seniors) were filled in anesthesiology, but 11 fewer (16 fewer US seniors) in diagnostic radiology, two "marker" disciplines that have shown increases over the past 3 years. Eight fewer positions (60 fewer US seniors) were also filled in categorical internal medicine while 99 fewer positions (142 fewer US seniors) were filled in categorical pediatrics programs, where trainees perceive options for either practicing as generalists or entering subspecialty fellowships, depending on the market. While the needs of the nation, especially rural and underserved populations, continue to offer opportunities for family physicians, family practice experienced a fifth year of decline through the 2002 NRMP. Many different forces, however, are impacting medical student career choices, including student perspectives of the demands, rewards, and prestige of the specialty, the turbulence and uncertainty of the health care environment, liability protection issues, and the impact of faculty and resident role models. The 2002 NRMP results may herald the leveling of recent trends away from family practice careers.     

The Need to Train Physicians for Rural Primary Health Care in Latin America: Some Family Medicine Experiences*

ABSTRACT: Training strategies to prepare physicians for rural primary care generally have not been a feature of medical education in Latin America. The emergence of family medicine as a specialty discipline has resulted in a number of primary care educational initiatives which are designed to give students or residents the knowledge and skills necessary to practice in rural settings. Specific programs in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina are identified and discussed. These programs were selected because they raise a number of educational and manpower planning issues which teachers of family medicine and rural primary care need to address if the long-term viability of these programs is to be achieved. These issues include: the role of the community as an educational laboratory, the supervision of community-based learning experiences, the development of strong clinical and community health promotion skills, the reinforcement of positive primary care learning throughout training, and the development of rural health role models. Manpower planning issues to be addressed include: developing a more precise identity for the primary care physician, a re-examination of the pasantia or year of required community service, developing closer ties between the medical schools and the Ministries of Health and other institutional employers of physicians, and encouraging successful programs to share their experiences with others.     

Training physicians in communication skills with adolescents using teenage actors as simulated patients

Role-play exercises with simulated patients may serve the purpose of training professionals to develop appropriate communication skills with adolescents. Authentic adolescent responses toward the physicians may be achieved by actors who themselves are in their teenage years. We describe our experience in continuing medical education programmes for primary care physicians aimed at improving their skills in communicating with adolescents, using simulation methodology with teenage actors. Eight 16-17-year-old actors from the drama department of a high school for the arts were trained to simulate 20 cases with characteristic adolescent medical problems, as well as confidentiality issues and home and school problems. The actors performed in front of large groups of 20-30 paediatricians, family practitioners, or gynaecologists in continuing medical education. Diagnostic issues as well as therapeutic and management approaches were discussed, while the actors provided feedback to the trainees about their understanding and their feeling regarding the issues raised during the exercises. Normally, smaller learning groups are more suitable for such training purposes; nevertheless the participants could appreciate learning the principles of careful listening, a non-judgmental approach and assuring confidentiality. A collaboration of medical schools and postgraduate programmes with high schools which have drama departments may be fruitful in the teaching of adolescent medicine with special emphasis on communication skills with teenagers.     

加拿大家庭医学教育强化技能培训对我国家庭医生培养和职业发展的启示

加拿大家庭医学教育目前已形成较完善的规范化教育和培养体系,强化技能训练是加拿大家庭医生规范化培训体系中作为通科培训后继续教育的一部分,家庭医生完成两年的通科培训后,可申请就重点关注的特殊领域进行额外专科培训,至少为期一年.通过强化技能训练的家庭医生在获得资质认证后可拥有重点执业领域执业资格,更好地完成家庭医生工作,同时...     

Relationship between US medical school admission policy and graduates entering family practice

Rural areas in the United States continue to lack an adequate supply of primary care doctors, particularly family physicians, despite the oversupply of physicians nationally. Previous studies have provided strong evidence that students from rural backgrounds, as well as those who expressed an interest at the time of medical school admission for a career in family medicine, are significantly more likely to eventually practise family medicine in rural areas than their peers. US medical schools were classified into three groups based on their written selection factors for preferentially admitting students into the graduating class of 1982. Of those schools with selection factors for students from both a rural background and an interest in a future career in family medicine, 23.7% of their graduates entered family medicine training programmes. This compares with 14.5% of graduates from schools with a preference for students from a rural background, and 12.4% from all other schools (P less than 0.001). Coupled with previous data which shows that family physicians from rural areas are more likely to eventually practise in rural areas than their peers, preferentially admitting students from rural backgrounds interested in a career in family medicine could help to solve the problem of the shortage of primary care physicians in rural areas in the US.     

Transition to family practice in Turkey

INTRODUCTION: Turkey's primary health care (PHC) system was established in the beginning of the 1960s and provides preventive and curative basic medical services to the population. This article describes the experience of the Turkish health system, as it tries to adapt to the European health system. It describes the current organization of primary health care and the family medicine model that is in the process of implementation and discusses implications of the transition for family physicians and the challenges faced in meeting the needs for health care staff. In Turkey a trend toward urbanization is evident and more staff positions in rural PHC centers are vacant. Shortages of physicians and an ineffective distribution of doctors are seen as a major problem. Family medicine gained popularity at the beginning of the 1990s, as a specialty with a 3-year postgraduate training program. Medical practitioners who are graduates of a 6-year medical training program and are already working in the PHC system are offered retraining courses. Better working conditions and higher salaries may be important incentives for medical practitioners to sign a contract with the social security institution of Turkey. DISCUSSION: The lack of well-trained primary care staff is an ongoing challenge. Attempts to retrain medical practitioners to act as family physicians show promising results. Shortness of physician and health professionals and lack of time and resources in primary health care are problems to overcome during this process.     

Rural Emergency Department Staffing and Participation in Emergency Certification and Training Programs

ABSTRACT:  Context: The practice of emergency medicine presents many challenges in rural areas. Purpose: We describe how rural hospitals nationally are staffing their Emergency Departments (EDs) and explore the participation of rural ED physicians and other health care professionals in selected certification and training programs that teach skills needed to provide high-quality emergency care. Methods: A national telephone survey of a random sample of rural hospitals with 100 or fewer beds was conducted in June to August 2006. Respondents included ED nurse managers and Directors of Nursing. A total of 408 hospitals responded (96% response rate). Findings: A majority of rural hospitals use more than one type of staffing to cover the ED. The type of staffing varies by time period and ED volume. On weekdays, about onethird of hospitals use physicians on their own medical staff; one third use contracted coverage; 18% use both; and 14% use physician assistants and/or nurse practitioners with a physician on-call. Hospitals are more likely to use a combination of medical staff and contracted coverage on evenings and weekends. Advanced Cardiac Life Support training is common, but Pediatric Advanced Life Support, Advanced Trauma Life Support, and training in working as a team are less common. More registered nurses working in rural EDs have taken the Trauma Nursing Core Course than the Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course. Conclusions: Rural ED staff would benefit from additional continuing education opportunities, particularly in terms of specialized skills to care for pediatric emergency patients and trauma patients and training in working effectively in teams .     

The ski camp doctor's role in the the prevention of winter sport accidents

Skiing is a risky sport for many, even for children and beginners. When the ski-group is escorted by doctors who are able to provide advanced life support on the scene and are trained either in the field of emergency medicine or in travel medicine, a good possibility is given for the prevention of ski-accidents and for decreasing the number of travel related illnesses. This fact has led to the basic idea of training ski-camp doctors in Hungary. There is no similar initiative in the Hungarian literature. Therefore the article tries to summarise the medical knowledge and requirements of a ski-camp doctor, and analyses the prevention tasks of the doctor as well. The camp doctor must be well informed and highly trained in the field of emergency and travel medicine. The main tasks are: pre-travel advice, treatment of the common (travel-related) diseases, providing basic and advanced life-support on the scene, and to organise the hospitalisation and repatriation of patient, in cooperation with the hospital and insurance doctor. Moreover, the prevention should start before departure: the estimation of the physical and health condition of the skiers, a continuous care of the chronic people, and supervision of the place (hygienic circumstances, rescue forces available, the condition of the ski slopes, etc.) are vital--as for the primary prevention. The secondary level of the prevention is the treatment of the injured/sick persons, and assistance in the medical evacuation. During the training, not only postgraduate medical, mountain and alpine medicine lessons have been provided, but basic legal and insurance information as well. Moreover, the doctors received ski-course from professional ski-trainers in order to improve their ski-technique and skills on different slopes and off-piste places. In the future the local mountain rescue and air-rescue forces have to be involved in postgraduate training. Hopefully different travel-insurance companies and travel offices will use the trained doctors as a medical escort for ski- and school groups. The presence of a ski-camp doctor could minimise the risk of sport activity for chronic (diabetic, cardiac, etc.) patients, for the beginners and for the elderly. Besides the primary prevention, a secondary level of prevention can be ensured by ski-camp doctors as well.     

Two Decades of Experience in the University of Washington Family Medicine Residency Network: Practice Differences Between Graduates in Rural and Urban Locations

This study describes how graduates of the University of Washington Family Medicine Residency Network who practice in rural locations differ from their urban counterparts in demographic characteristics, practice organization, practice content and scope of services, and satisfaction. Five hundred and three civilian medical graduates who completed their residencies between 1973 and 1990 responded to a 27-item questionnaire sent in 1992 (84% response rate). Graduates practicing outside the United States in a specialty other than family medicine or for fewer than 20 hours per week in direct patient care were excluded from the main study, leaving 116 rural and 278 urban graduates in the study. Thirty percent of graduates reported practicing in rural counties at the time of the survey. Rural graduates were more likely to be in private and solo practices than urban graduates. Rural graduates spent more time in patient care and on call, performed a broader range of procedures, and were more likely to practice obstetrics than urban graduates. Fewer graduates in rural practice were women. A greater proportion of rural graduates had been defendants in medical malpractice suits. The more independent and isolated private and solo practice settings of rural graduates require more practice management skills and support. Rural graduates' broader scope of practice requires training in a full range of procedures and inpatient care, as well as ambulatory care. Rural communities and hospitals also need to develop more flexible practice opportunities, including salaried and part-time positions, to facilitate recruitment and retention of physicians, especially women.     

The current status and future needs of education and training in family medicine and primary care in South Africa

South Africa is undergoing tremendous political and social change affecting every sphere of society, including medical education and the delivery of health services. The legacy of its history created a health system that in some respects can be compared to the best in the world, but one also characterized by inequity, discrimination and lack of access to even basic services for the rural and the poor. Its medical education system trails behind modern trends such as problem-based learning, community-based education and the utilizing of general/family practitioners as trainers. Vocational training in family practice is not compulsory for independent practice. The discipline of family practice has nevertheless developed the programmes and core infrastructure for such a future undertaking in the form of masters programmes in family medicine at all medical schools. The recently introduced system of compulsory recertification through continuous professional development provides a window of opportunity to develop locally relevant curricula and appropriate education and training methods for family practitioners. Challenges for family practice include the establishment of the role and value of the discipline in a developing country with a health system based on a nurse-driven primary care service and the re-orientation of family medicine teachers, trained in a biomedical paradigm, to the patient-centred approach. The aspirations of family practice are to define the core content of the discipline, establish and nurture a culture of research in primary care, and to develop and introduce appropriate under and postgraduate training programmes for the new generation of family doctors.     

Improving the recruitment and retention of doctors by training medical students locally

Medical Education 2011: 45 : 1121–1129 Context The global shortage of doctors is of concern. This is particularly true in French‐speaking regions of New Brunswick, Canada, where there is no medical school. Since 1981, francophone medical students from New Brunswick have been able to undertake part of their training in their province through an agreement with medical schools in another province. We studied the effects of frequency and length of exposure to the province of origin during medical training on the likelihood that a doctor will ever or currently practise medicine in that province. Methods A questionnaire was sent to 390 francophone doctors from New Brunswick to collect information on history of medical training and practice. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to identify whether exposure to New Brunswick during medical training at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels affects the likelihood of ever or currently practising in the province. Results A total of 263 doctors participated. Among family doctors, those with exposure to their province of origin in 1, 2, 3 or 4 years of undergraduate training were 2.5 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.8–7.4), 2.5 (95% CI 0.7–8.6), 9.3 (95% CI 1.5–56.9) and 9.3 (95% CI 1.4–60.1) times more likely, respectively, to currently practise in New Brunswick than doctors who had experienced no exposure to the province during undergraduate training. Among specialty doctors, exposure to New Brunswick during undergraduate training had no effect on location of practice. Family and specialty doctors who had been exposed to New Brunswick during postgraduate residency were 5.9 (95% CI 2.3–14.9) and 3.2 (95% CI 0.9–11.6) times more likely, respectively, to practise in the province than doctors without postgraduate exposure. Conclusions Greater exposure to New Brunswick during medical training is associated with significantly better odds that doctors will be recruited to and retained in the province. Some effects are perceived for exposure during both undergraduate (most importantly in the final years) and postgraduate programmes.     

Results of the 2003 National Resident Matching Program: family practice

The results of the 2003 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) reflect a persistent decline of student interest in family practice residency training in the United States. Compared with the 2002 Match, 118 fewer positions (179 fewer US seniors) were filled in family practice residency programs through the NRMP in 2003, as well as 23 fewer (12 fewer US seniors) in primary care internal medicine, 20 fewer in pediatrics-primary care (11 fewer US seniors), and 23 fewer (34 fewer US seniors) in internal medicine-pediatric programs. In comparison, 40 more positions (14 more US seniors) were filled in anesthesiology and 8 more (8 more US seniors) in diagnostic radiology, two "marker" disciplines that have shown increases over the past 3 years. Sixty-seven more positions (but 148 fewer US seniors) were also filled in categorical internal medicine, while 107 more positions (33 more US seniors) were filled in categorical pediatrics programs, where trainees perceive options for either practicing as generalists or entering subspecialty fellowships, depending on the market. While the needs of the nation, especially rural and underserved populations, continue to offer opportunities for family physicians, family practice experienced continued decline though the 2003 NRMP. Many different forces, including student perspectives of the demands, rewards, and prestige of the specialty; the turbulence and uncertainty of the health care environment; liability protection issues; and the impact of faculty and resident role models, are impacting medical student career choices. The 2003 NRMP again confirms the trend away from family practice and primary care careers.