Young FPs Assess Residency Trauma Training - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Family Pratice News,  Feb 1, 2000  by Doug Brunk

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SAN DIEGO -- A survey of Colorado family physicians 1 year after residency showed that most considered their training in emergency medicine appropriate, but many felt they could use more experience in managing major trauma.

As many as 80% of rural-based emergency departments are staffed by family physicians, Dr. William Hall noted at the annual meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group.

In 1998, Dr. Hall and his associates sent a questionnaire to 70 family physicians who had completed a Colorado-based family practice residency program in the previous year. Fifty FPs (72%) responded.

Overall, 33% of the respondents worked in emergency departments; of those, 56% worked in rural settings. Although 60% of the surveyed FPs reported regular contact with emergency medical services personnel, such contact was much greater among FPs based in rural settings (91%) than among those in urban settings (32%).

Nearly 60% would consider jobs requiring emergency department work, and one-third would consider being a physician advisor to an ambulance service, said Dr. Hall, who conducted the study while a medical student at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver.

In addition, 54% of the surveyed FPs said their training adequately prepared them for working in emergency departments; 40% said their training in emergency medicine was "just right." And 63% of rural-based and 22% of urban-based respondents thought that more experience in managing major trauma would be valuable.

Dr. Hall, who is now an emergency medicine resident at the University of Texas, Dallas, suggested that opportunities to improve training may include expanded trauma care, electives in such areas as advanced cardiac life support, and enhanced contact with emergency medicine personnel.

Up to 44% of the FPs surveyed indicated an interest in an emergency medical services fellowship of at least 6 months; 16% expressed interest in board certification.

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