Women's Health Training in Japan Primary Care Association Certified Family Medicine Residency Programs: Status of Programs, Residents and Medical Students / 日本プライマリ・ケア連合学会誌

ABSTRACT

Introduction: We conducted 3 surveys to elucidate the current status of Women's Health (WH) training in Japanese General Practice Residency Programs, and the opinions that the residency program directors and learners have about the training.Methods: Three questionnaire surveys were conducted during Aug-Nov, 2015. Subjects of the surveys were residency program directors (Survey 1), resident physicians (Survey 2) and medical students (Survey 3).Results: Survey 1 (response rate 42.7%) Regarding the programs, 6.8% and 38.9% provided compulsory WH rotations and selective rotations, respectively. Of the respondents, 71.4% wished to improve WH training, whereas 68.0% noted barriers, including the shortage of teaching physicians, and lack of understanding by teaching physicians regarding the needs and objectives of WH training. Survey 2 (response rate 45.8%) Of the residents, 14.5% and 27.9% had compulsory and selective WH rotations, respectively. The WH training was reported to be insufficient by 57.8% of the respondents. Survey 3 (response rate 85.4%) Of the medical students, 97% desired WH training and 97.7% wished to practice WH in the future.Conclusion: Our surveys revealed WH training in current Japanese General Practice Residency Programs to be inadequate, and both trainers and trainees desired further improvement of their training programs.