Surgical practice of primary care physicians in a rural state: implications for curriculum design

We surveyed practicing primary care physicians to help determine surgical practice patterns of primary care physicians in a rural state. The information obtained can be used to make surgical curriculum decisions for generalist medical students and primary care residents.

We developed a questionnaire in which practicing primary care physicians were asked to rate, on a 5-point Likert scale, the importance of 145 areas of surgical knowledge and 48 areas of clinical skills to their practice. Responses were rank ordered by the mean ratings for each individual item. The questionnaire was sent to all 876 primary care physicians in the home state of the institution.

The survey response rate was 61% (n = 534). The most highly ranked items and procedures included acute otitis media, sinusitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, pharyngitis, urinary tract infection, performance of abdominal exam, history and physical, daily progress notes, ear canal cleaning, and ability to write admission orders. The lowest ranked items included transplantation, infertility, amputations, performance of tracheostomy, venous cutdown, and cricothyrotomy.

Information regarding the surgical practice patterns of practicing primary care physicians can be used to develop a surgical curriculum for medical students and primary care residents.