The emergency medicine training needs of rural general practitioners

This study aimed to identify the emergency medicine training needs of rural general practitioners (GPs) in the catchment area of the Hunter Rural Division of General Practice. The GPs were surveyed using a questionnaire in which they were asked about their confidence levels in a number of specific emergency medicine skills, and about the areas of emergency medicine that they saw as priorities for upskilling. More than a third of GPs who were responsible for on-call work at the hospital indicated that they had low levels of confidence in a number of their emergency medicine skills, in particular skills relating to paediatric emergencies, cardiovascular emergencies, and respiratory emergencies. These emergency medicine domains were also seen as high priorities for upskilling by the majority of the respondents. The study shows that rural doctors need the opportunity to access emergency medicine training that provides upskilling not only in the management of clinical problems, but also in practical procedures.