Objective To investigate current status including teachers, forms and contents of continuing medical education for primary general practitioners in China, and provide scientific evidences for continuing medical education policy.
Methods Cluster random sampling and convenient sampling method was used in this study. In May 2017, a questionnaire survey was carried out among 670 general practitioners from 54 Primary health institutions of 13 Provinces in China. Epidata 3.1 was used to enter data and all analyses were conducted with SAS 9.1 statistical package.
P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results Continuing medical education teachers were mainly from tertiary hospitals or specialized hospitals, accounting for 49.8%, and only 9.88% of the teachers came from the primary health institutions. Compared with other regions, the eastern region had more teachers who came from primary health institutions, accounting for 11.98%. Continuing medical education for primary general practitioners was mainly carried out in the form of academic lectures, training class and online education; and operation practice and field visit was less, only 8.96%. Online education was conducted more in western region and rural area. In addition, the content of continuing medical education concentrated in the rational use of drugs and disease diagnosis and treatment, etc. It was also found that the rate of teacher satisfaction was 59.28%, teaching form was 49.32%, and content was 53.07%. Moreover, the satisfaction of general practitioners differs in different regions, educational backgrounds and professional titles.
Conclusion The overall continuing medical education satisfaction was at a low level. The results indicated that to improve the quality of continuing medical education for general practitioners in primary health institutions it is necessary to strengthen the teacher cultivation, enrich the forms and broaden the contents to meet the different needs of primary general practitioners.
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