Premedical Students’ Attitudes Toward Primary Care Medicine (original) (raw)
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Changing first-year medical students' attitudes toward primary care
Family medicine, 2014
With the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an additional 34 million people will gain access to health care. Combined with population growth and aging adults, expanded insurance coverage will dramatically increase the demand for primary care services. To encourage medical students to pursue primary care, medical schools are integrating courses that will expose students to primary care medicine early in their education. We used a descriptive, cross-sectional study design to evaluate the impact of a week-long intensive course in primary care on first-year medical students' attitudes toward primary care. We developed a 25-item survey to assess medical students' knowledge, perception, and attitudes about primary care; the survey was administered before and after the course. A total of 125 first-year medical students (mean age=23.7 ± 2.9 years, 52.4% female, 75.8% Non-Hispanic white, 11.2% rural) completed the pre-course survey, and 117 completed the post-...
Knowledge of and Attitude towards Primary Healthcare among Undergraduate Medical Students
Journal of Gandhara medical and dental sciences, 2022
To assess undergraduate medical students' knowledge of and their attitudes towards primary healthcare and to compare the knowledge and attitudes of students in public and private medical colleges as well as between different demographic groups of students. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted in public and private medical colleges after an ethical approval was granted. Data was collected from 201 undergraduate medical students through a validated (by Chalmers et al. 1997) Primary Health Care Questionnaire (PHCQ) utilizing an online data collection platform of Google Forms. The link to Google Form was distributed via emails and social media links of participating colleges. Data was exported from Google Form into SPSS version 24 and analyzed.
Initial Development and Validation of a Family Medicine Attitudes Questionnaire
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although many curricular and policy interventions are designed to influence students’ attitudes toward family medicine, assessment of these interventions is limited by lack of a comprehensive, validated measure of students’ attitudes. We sought to develop and validate a questionnaire that effectively assesses medical student attitudes toward family medicine. METHODS: A 31-item questionnaire was assessed for internal, external, and content validity. The questionnaire was offered to fourth-year students at two Midwestern medical schools. Internal validity was assessed using data reduction and iterative factor analyses. External validity was assessed by correlating scores with intention to match in family medicine. Content validity was assessed by directly observing students as they completed the questionnaire and qualitatively evaluating student comments. RESULTS: Of 858 students invited, 426 (49.7%) provided usable questionnaire data. After removal of questions with lower interitem correlations and simplification of subscales, the modified questionnaire achieved acceptable subscale internal consistency and a Cronbach alpha of 0.798. The overall instrument summative score correlated with family medicine career choice (P<0.001). Most subscales and individual items also correlated with family medicine choice. Ten students were directly observed, using an iterative process, and modifications were made based on student understanding. CONCLUSIONS: Development of a validated questionnaire assessing medical student attitudes toward family medicine is feasible. With further refinement, the Family Medicine Attitudes Questionnaire may be useful in evaluating the impact of curricular interventions on students’ perceptions of family medicine, contributing to an evidence-based approach to recruitment of students to the specialty.
Medical education online, 2017
There is a growing need for primary care physicians, but only a small percentage of graduating medical students enter careers in primary care. To assess whether a Primary Care Intraclerkship within the Medicine clerkship can significantly improve students' attitudes by analyzing scores on pre- and post-tests. Students on the Medicine clerkship at the University of Massachusetts Medical School participated in full-day 'intraclerkships',to demonstrate the importance of primary care and the management of chronic illness in various primary care settings. Pre-and post-tests containing students' self-reported, five-point Likert agreement scale evaluations to 26 items (measuring perceptions about the roles of primary care physicians in patient care and treatment) were collected before and after each session. Eleven intraclerkships with 383 students were held between June 2010 and June 2013. Responses were analyzed using the GLM Model Estimate. Results from the survey analys...
BMC Family Practice, 2016
Background: Switzerland is facing an impending primary care workforce crisis since almost half of all primary care physicians are expected to retire in the next decade. Only a minority of medical students choose a primary care specialty, further deepening the workforce shortage. It is therefore essential to identify ways to promote the choice of a primary care career. The aim of the present study was to explore students' views about the undergraduate primary care teaching curriculum and different teaching formats, and to evaluate the possible impact of these views on students' perceptions of primary care. Methods: We surveyed fifth year medical students from the Medical Faculties in Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (n = 285) with a four sections electronic questionnaire. We carried out descriptive analyses presented as frequencies for categorical data, and means and/or medians for continuous data. Results: The response rate was 43 %. Overall, primary care teaching had a positive impact on students' image of primary care. In Lausanne, primary care curricular components were rated more positively than in Geneva. Curricular components that were not part of the primary care teaching, but were nevertheless cited by some students, were frequently perceived as having a negative impact. Conclusions: The primary care curriculum at Lausanne and Geneva Universities positively influences students' perceptions of this discipline. However, there are shortcomings in both the structure and the content of both the primary care and hidden curriculum that may contribute to perpetuating a negative image of this specialization.
Assessing factors for choosing a primary care specialty in medical students; A longitudinal study
Medical Education Online, 2021
A shortage of primary care physicians exists in the US, and medical schools are investigating factors that influence specialty choice. To better understand the factors associated with medical students choosing primary care specialties, a longitudinal annual survey from 2013 to 2019 was administered to students at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, starting pre-matriculation. A logistic regression model examined factors of interest. Matching into a primary care specialty (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics) for residency was the primary outcome. Our study compared factors students reported in annual surveys: demographics, mentorship, debt, and lifestyle. Factors significantly associated with primary care specialty included pre-medical and medical school research, a family member in primary care, student age and gender. 28% of men chose primary care, and 47% of women. Although there was no gender difference in rates of medical education debt (N = 286,χ2(1) = 0.28, p = 0.60), men were more likely to report being influenced by debt (N = 278, χ2 (1) = 10.88, p = 0.001), and students who reported debt-influenced specialty choice were one-third as likely to enter primary care (N = 189, 95% CI [0.11–1.06], p = 0.06). For men, potential salary was negatively associated with entering primary care (p = 0.03). Women were more likely to have a mentor in primary care (N = 374, χ2(1) = 13.87, p < 0.001), but this was not associated with an increased likelihood of entering primary care for men or women. Having a family member who practices primary care was associated with a 2.87 times likelihood of entering primary care (N = 303, 95% CI [1.14–7.19], p = 0.03). The decision to enter primary care is influenced by many factors; a key gender differentiator is that men’s specialty choice is more negatively influenced by financial concerns.
Medical Students’ Views of Medicine as a Calling and Selection of a Primary Care-Related Residency
The Annals of Family Medicine, 2018
With the US health care system facing a primary care physician shortage, we evaluated whether medical students who saw medicine as a calling were more likely to enter a family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatrics residency program. Of the 591 4th-year medical students who responded to a survey item on medicine as a calling, 237 strongly agreed that the “practice of medicine is a calling.” Students who strongly agreed that medicine was a calling had higher odds (P=.003) of selecting a primary care-related residency. Identifying with medicine as a calling may increase the likelihood of pursuing a primary care career.