Measuring attitude toward family medicine

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Primary Care Research
• Attitudinal Measurement

Background:

• Assessing medical student attitudes towards family medicine is crucial for workforce planning.
• Existing instruments may not fully capture nuanced perceptions of the specialty.
• Understanding student perspectives informs curriculum development and recruitment strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a reliable scale for measuring student attitudes toward family medicine.
• To assess the nature of family medicine, physician competency, and academic image.
• To determine the proportion of first-year medical students with positive attitudes.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 35-item Likert scale.
• Administration to 116 first-year medical students.
• Item analysis (item-to-total correlation, factor analysis) and reliability testing.

Main Results:

• A 23-item scale was finalized after item analysis.
• Concurrent validity and internal reliability were established.
• 73% of respondents reported a positive attitude toward family medicine.

Conclusions:

• The developed scale is a valid and reliable tool for assessing student attitudes.
• A significant majority of first-year medical students hold positive views of family medicine.
• Findings support the potential for family medicine to attract future physicians.