Medical students’ Perspective About Primary Care Providers, the Foundation of Effective Health Systems - Knowledge of Family Medicine & Attitude towards Community & Family Medicine

Knowledge of Family Medicine & Attitude towards C & FM

Abstract

Introduction: Community Medicine is an ideal mix of family medicine and public health.
However, most students do not understand family medicine nor do they show an affinity towards
either of the subjects for post-graduation. This non-preference leads to an imbalance in the
demand of specialists in the country. There is a need to understand the concept of medical
students about these subjects and what could make it attractive to them.
Objective: This study was planned to assess knowledge of family medicine and attitude towards
Community & Family medicine among the MBBS students of All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, Bhubaneswar.
Material & methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in AIIMS, Bhubaneswar among
undergraduate medical students from August to September 2015. Convenient sampling was done
and a self-designed and pretested questionnaire was used. Data were analyzed using Microsoft
Excel and SPSS version 21.
Result: The total number of students who participated was 232 (response rate 92.8%). Mean age
of the participants was 20.2 years ± 1.21 and 128 (55.2%) were males. Nearly one-fifth of the
students did not know anything about family medicine. Students coming from the rural area
(p=0.001) and senior students (p=0.001) have significantly better understanding of family
medicine. 140 (60.3%) did not want to establish their career in family medicine and only three
students had a positive opinion about the subject. Lack of knowledge about family medicine &
less financial gain were some of the reasons highlighted by the students for not preferring these
subjects for specialization.
Conclusion: Currently the level of understanding of family medicine is more of confusion
among the undergraduate medical students. Majority of the students are not willing to choose
family medicine/community medicine as a profession in the future.