Abstract:

Objective To investigate the perception of general practice education in medical undergraduate students, and explore the necessity of general practice education. Methods Juniors of five-year clinical medicine major who had not received systematic general practice compulsory courses in Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine were selected, and surveys with self-designed questionnaires including willingness of learning general practice courses, willingness of being general practitioners and suggestions on general practice education were conducted. Results All questionnaires (n=92) were valid and were recovered. 63.0% of the students who would not work in community health service centers in future considered it necessary to receive general practice education, and the percents of those who would not be general practitioners and who would like to be specialists in future were 65.2% and 77.2%, respectively. 66.3% of the students were willing to become general practitioners, and the main reason was employment pressure (31.1%). Students who were unwilling to be general practitioners due to "small room for potential development" and "lower social status" accounted for 35.0% and 30.0%, respectively. 70.7% of the students considered it necessary to open general practice courses in medical colleges, and 56.6% suggested the ratio of theory courses to practice courses might be 2∶1 or 1∶1. Conclusion The majority of medical students think it necessary to receive general practice education. It is important for medical colleges to conduct more general practice-related education, and more favorable policies should be implemented for government to attract more medical students to be general practitioners in future.

Key words: general practice, education, medical students, perception, willingness