Women's health for a primary care workforce

Primary care training should include competencies to provide reproductive health services. In the United Sates, primary care is often provided by general internal medicine physicians. Longitudinal training experiences for internal medicine residents in women's health increase knowledge, skills and retention in careers in women's health, but very little literature describes their implementation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation and evaluation of a 2-year women's health training pathway in Internal Medicine.

Using the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model, we describe the salient features of a complex, longitudinal educational intervention at the development, planning and evaluation stages within a large academic medical centre.

In 2019, we conducted interviews with the pathway participants (N = 6) in the first 3 years of the programme and used the CIPP framework and Kirkpatrick's Model as an a priori codebook for analysis. Participants reported high fidelity and that the training was relevant and appropriate to meet their needs. Practicing clinicians similarly reported that training was relevant and useful and met desired goals for knowledge and integrated approaches to care. Trainees reported unexpected benefits of identity formation and a community of practice.

These results suggest that longitudinal training pathways are an effective way to train Internal Medicine residents to provide comprehensive care to women. This study has broader applications for health professions education, providing a model for implementation and evaluation of complex educational interventions in large organisations. Future research should focus on dissemination to train a workforce prepared to offer evidence-based care to women throughout their lifespan.