Survey on Introduction to General Practice course taking and knowledge of General Practice among medical students in Fudan University / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To survey Introduction to General Practice course taking and knowledge of general practice among medical students in Fudan University.Methods A survey with self-designed questionnaire was conducted in June 2017 among medical students of 5 year program in Fudan University who had taken the course of Introduction to General Practice.Results One hundred and ninety seven questionnaires were distributed and 186 valid ones returned with a recovery rate of 94.42％.The survey showed that 95.16％ of participants (177/186)gained knowledge about the post of general practitioners (GPs) through community practice;97.31％ (181 / 186) thought community practice as necessary;92.47％ (172/186) were very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the community practice course;94.09％ (175/186)gained clear understanding of the duty of GPs through the course study;87.63％ (163/186)completely understood the required capabilities of a GP;74.19％ (138/186)said that the course had opened their mind;64.52％ (120/ 186) said that they had changed their views about general practice;63.44％ (118/186) said that they had acquired new knowledge.The participants also gave some suggestions regarding the content of community practice.Although 96.24％ of the students (179/186)thought that general practitioner had a bright career prospect,only 7 of them (3.76％)were willing to be GPs after graduation;meanwhile 161 of them (86.56％) were willing to be specialists.The main reasons of not willing to be a GP were "wish to be a specialists (82.61％,133/186)","the job was not challenging or difficult for career development (45.34％,73/186)" and "not paid well for GPs (45.34％,73/186)".Conclusion Although many students thought GP would have good career prospect,only few of them are willing to be a GP.How to attract more medical students to chose GP as their career should be paid high attention by education and health authorities.