Family Medicine as a Future Specialty among Interns at Zagazig University Hospitals

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Family Medicine department, faculty of MEdicine, Zagazig University

2 Department of community, environmental and occupational medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Family Medicine, a very important emerging specialty, is intended to provide continuing, comprehensive health care for individuals and families. Large numbers of family physicians are needed for the overall integrate health‑care system. Factors affecting the choice of this specialty were personal preferences, an interest in the field, and practical experience of the subject.
Objectives: To assess attitude of interns toward Family Medicine as a future specialty, and to determine association between some personal factors and their attitudes.
Methods: A cross sectional study on was conducted on (116) interns working at Zagazig university hospitals (from June to September 2019). All interns were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire to identify their sociodemographic data, future specialty and attitude towards Family Medicine as a future specialty.
Results: About 9% of interns wanted to be family physicians and (43.1%) had positive attitude about Family Medicine. Most common reasons of not choosing it as a future specialty were lack of knowledge (55%), lower social respect (43.2%) and low financial gain (39.2%).There was significant relation between attitude and all of gender, marital status and their knowledge about Family Medicine. On multivariate analysis, male gender and lack of knowledge were significant independent risk factors for this negative attitude.
Conclusion: Interns had a negative attitude towards Family Medicine. Lack of knowledge, lower social respect and lower financial gain were most common causes of not choosing Family Medicine as a future specialty.

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