by Leonida Iannantuoni and Giovanni Battista D’Errico
05 OTT –
Dear Director,
Assimefac (Association of Interdisciplinary Scientific Society and Family and Community Medicine) believes that it is urgent to remedy the educational gap inherent in general medicine / family medicine, between the Italian reality and that of the vast majority of European and non-European countries where general medicine / family medicine is a subject of study in the degree and specialization course like other medical disciplines. For this reason it was considered appropriate to know the opinion of medical colleagues.
Materials and methods
A questionnaire with twelve items relating to sex, age, main profession, number of assistants in charge, type of performance of the general practitioner activity, was administered via the web and sector publications for a period of ten days, knowledge of the European and non-European educational reality.
The questionnaire investigated:
a) The opinion of colleagues on the opportunity for general practitioners (GPs) to access a university career.
b) The benefits for both GPs, both for doctors in training, as well as for the quality of health care resulting from the establishment of a university specialization school in general medicine.
c) The last question asks for an opinion, for or against the establishment of a university specialization school in general medicine.
Results
The questionnaire was filled in by 428 colleagues of which 63.80% men and 36.20% women. The age group most represented was over 51 years (45.60%).
63.10% of colleagues who answered the questionnaire carry out the activity of general practitioner with over 1000 assistants in charge (48.30%), overall 28.20% carry out the professional activity in medicine of group. 84.20% of the interviewees declare that they are aware that, in EU and non-EU countries, there are university specialization schools in general medicine and 92.60% say they are in favor of the possibility, for general practitioners, to access the university career.
86.90% of the colleagues interviewed declared themselves in favor of the adoption, through a university specialization school, of a single core curriculum and 87.20%, rejecting the current training criterion based on regional management training courses , believes that a university graduate school would lead to better preparation of trainees.
As regards the professional updating of GPs, the prevailing opinion of the interviewees (82.90%) is favorably oriented towards the establishment of a specialization school. Finally, 84.20% of respondents believe that a specialization school could relaunch the profession of general practitioner among young people and 89.60% say they are in favor of the establishment, also in Italy, of schools of university specialization in general medicine.
Conclusions
Regardless of age and professional role played, almost all of the interviewees (89.60%) believe that it is appropriate and urgent to equate the training of general practitioners with other international realities through the establishment of real university specialization schools. in general medicine.
Leonida Iannantuoni
President CTS ASSIMEFAC
Giovanni Battista D’Errico
Responsible ASSIMEFAC Oncology and Palliative Care Area
05 October 2022
© All rights reserved
Other articles in Letters to the editor
