Dear Sir
Increasing medical student numbers and a teacher workforce shortage, makes it important to understand general practitioners’ current thoughts about teaching medical students in their practices.
Ninety-five teaching general practitioners (urban and rural) from the Notre Dame School of Medicine, Western Australia received a questionnaire concerning medical student attachments. Replies were anonymous. The Human Ethics Committee of the University of Notre Dame gave approval. Responses to open questions were categorised after consensus.
The response rate was 61% which limits extrapolation. Thirty-six (62%) of the respondents reported that a positive aspect of the attachment was that it helped them as a teacher to reflect and analyse their own clinical practising. Thirty-six (62%) felt that they had gained fresh ideas and knowledge from the student – a finding reported elsewhere. This was reported more frequently in teachers who graduated in medicine outside Australia than those who graduated from Australian medical schools 23 (85%) vs. 13 (41.9%) χ2 9.7, p = 0.001.
Fifty-six (97%) reported that taking a medical student created time pressure/slowing down the practice and 26 (45%) felt there was a loss of income/poor remuneration for teaching. These known problems constitute a world-wide barrier to expanding the ambulatory teaching of medical undergraduates. More financial support for this teaching is essential.
Altruism seemed to drive 27 (47%) of the respondents but only 17 (29%) indicated teaching as an opportunity to advocate General Practice as a career.
Forty-four (81%) wanted individual (not group) feedback from the medical student and this could aid future teacher professional development. None possessed formal education qualifications, yet only 14 (24%) reported a need from the medical school for courses or teaching workshops. These findings and those of other studies, (Baker et al. Citation2003; Malik et al. Citation2007) mean that if we are to maintain general practice interest in teaching it may be useful to tailor educational support through an appropriately trained academic general practitioner frequently visiting teaching practices.
Robert Moorhead, Tom Brett, Diane Arnold-Reed & Maria Saldanha, School of Medicine (Fremantle), University of Notre Dame, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
References
- Baker P, Dalton L, Walker J. Rural general practitioner preceptors – how can effective undergraduate teaching be supported or improved?. Rural Remote Health 2003; 3: 107
- Malik R, Bordman R, Regehr G, Freeman R. Continuous quality improvement and community-based faculty development through an innovative site visit program at one institution. Acad Med 2007; 5: 465–468