Gender and the educational experience in a primary care training setting

As the number of women entering medical school increases, patient contacts with female physicians will similarly increase. As a result, educators have begun to consider the relationship between gender and both performance and career preference. The current study explores the relationship between a student's gender and the educational experience of the student. In the setting of established primary care teaching physicians' offices at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, gender and diagnosis data were collected on all patient encounters over the course of one year for the 129 students enrolled in the program. Women medical students were 29% less likely than chance to see male patients, and male students were 5% less likely than chance to see female patients in this setting. This finding was especially marked for encounters with younger adult patients and for sexually sensitive examinations, but was noted with all groups of adult patients. The qualitative effect of this on both educational experiences and health care delivery needs to be addressed.