Premedical Students’ Attitudes Toward Primary Care Medicine (original) (raw)

Background: Expanded insurance coverage will likely increase the demand for primary care physicians in the United States. Despite this demand, the number of medical students planning to specialize in primary care is decreasing. Objective: To explore premedical students’ attitudes toward the primary care specialty. Methods: Students enrolled in premedicine at a large Midwestern university were invited to complete the Primary Care Attitudes Survey (Cronbach α=.76). This 25-item survey measures attitudes about primary care on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1, “strongly disagree” to 5, “strongly agree.” Basic sociodemographic characteristics were assessed using descriptive statistics, and frequencies of individual survey responses were calculated using SPSS statistical software version 21.0. Results: A total of 100 premedical students (mean [SD] age, 19.8 [1.5] years; 59 female, 82 white non-Hispanic, and 33 freshman) completed the survey. Of 100 students, 33 planned to pursue pri...