Teachers in general practice: a comparative study

Thirty-nine randomly selected general practitioners in the Cambridgeshire Health Area were surveyed in an attempt to determine whether there were prior differences between those practitioners who choose to become involved with undergraduate medical students and those who choose not to. Teachers were found to have graduated more recently, subscribe to more journals and were more likely to use medical libraries than non-teachers. All the solo practitioners in the study and two of the four practitioners in two-man groups belonged to a subgroup of non-teachers who had never had students and did not want students in the future. This subfroup also subscribed to fewer journals than the other groups, bought fewer textbooks and used medical libraries less. The only prior differences between teachers and non-teacher that have been demonstrated are year of graduation and type of practice. Other differences could well be attributed to the influence of the students themselves. Studies are needed to clarify this issue, especially as it realates to continuing medical education.