Satisfactions and dissatisfactions of graduating family practice residents.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to determine whether the types of professional satisfactions and dissatisfactions experienced by family practice residents in one program were characteristic of those experienced by residents from other programs. METHODS: Materials and procedures developed previously were used in a study of 23 residents from five family medicine programs. Respondents were interviewed in the spring of their graduation year. Transcripts of these interviews were examined for the presence of specific themes relating to professional satisfactions and dissatisfactions. RESULTS: Themes found in the interviews from all five programs were similar to each other and to the themes uncovered previously. Satisfactions were related to the interpersonal aspects of patient care, the intellectual aspects of medicine, the process of delivering care, and instances of intervention in critical situations. An additional source of satisfaction, not found previously, was derived from activities in certain specific content areas of family medicine. Dissatisfactions reflected concerns about the bureaucratic climate in which medicine is currently practiced, time demands of a medical career, frustrations with patient behavior, and negative feelings about the professional situation of the family practice resident. CONCLUSIONS: Having corroborated the existence of satisfaction and dissatisfaction themes found earlier, results of this research may provide information to educators about the professional identity of the family physicians they are training.

Effect of appointment scheduling and reminder postcards on adherence to mammography recommendations.

A brief, simple intervention designed to increase the adherence of female patients to their physicians' recommendations for screening mammograms was tested in several midwestern sites. Compared with a control group in which women were examined, told about mammography, and instructed to make an appointment for themselves, an intervention that scheduled appointments for women on the spot and followed up with a reminder postcard increased adherence at every site. Such an intervention, if implemented on a wide scale, would augment the value of screening mammography in controlling breast cancer.

The experience of screening mammography.

Nearly 1000 women who had just undergone screening mammography responded to a survey regarding demographics, the circumstances of the mammographic examination, and their responses to it. Several findings of interest to the family physician include the following: (1) The majority of respondents obtained the examination as a result of their physician's referral rather than on their own. (2) Most respondents experienced less pain during the procedure than they had anticipated. (3) The major expressed motivation for obtaining the examination was to seek reassurance that nothing was wrong. Family physicians need to know that screening mammography patients accept the procedure, and should incorporate awareness of the above findings into their routine practice.

Behavioral scientists: anticipations, satisfactions, and frustrations.

The survey of the STFM Behavioral Science Task Force was analyzed for responses of behavioral scientists to questions regarding anticipations, satisfactions, and frustrations. The "typical" behavioral scientist anticipated expanded teaching opportunities and was concerned about the lack of support from program administrators. He or she took satisfaction chiefly from being able to do the job well but was frustrated by family practitioners or other physicians whose perspectives were strictly biomedical.