Need for comprehensive women's health continuing medical education among primary care physicians

Abstract

Areas of interest correlate well with new requirements by ABIM and AAFP and should be targeted by CME programs.

Primary Care Program Directors' Perceptions of Women's Health Education: A Gap in Graduate Medical Education Persists

“…Previous studies have also found that when residents and practicing internists were surveyed directly, both groups reported that they feel poorly trained in women's health. 4,15,16 Third, not all PDs participated in our study. It is possible that nonrespondents would have reported differently from respondents, but if this were the case, we believe that the nonrespondents' perceptions of their residents' mastery would have been less favorable rather than more favorable.…”

“…17,18 The other is that practicing general internists assert that knowledge about contraception and other women's health concerns, including vaginitis, osteoporosis, menopausal symptoms, and psychosocial counseling, are highly relevant to their practice. 16 It is not yet clear how to address the educational deficiencies relating to women's health. Most curricula in medical education-for women's health and for other areas-have not been subject to rigorous evaluation.…”

Teaching Internal Medicine Residents to Care for Reproductive-Age and Pregnant Women: An Effective Web-Based Curriculum

“…7 Prior research conducted both before and after the FCIM guidelines suggests that training on these topics has been inadequate. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The University of Pittsburgh has a 187 well-established Section of Women's Health in the Division of General Internal Medicine and therefore provides many educational experiences that pertain to the care of women to all internal medicine residents in the program. However, through informal discussion with faculty, residents, and recent graduates we found that despite this strong women's health emphasis, there seemed to be a dearth of educational opportunities that specifically pertain to the internal medicine issues that women who are or who plan to become pregnant face.…”

Medical student exposure to women’s health concepts and practices: a content analysis of curriculum at Canadian medical schools

“…Canadian clinicians of varied specialty who we interviewed said they lacked training and skill in WH [ 25 ]. In a survey, 300 American primary care physicians rated many WH topics of interest for continuing education [ 26 ]. A survey of American academic general internal medicine physicians and family physicians revealed that few were confident in precepting a range of WH concerns [ 27 ].…”