Zhongguo quanke yixue (Mar 2024)
Teaching of Undergraduate General Practice in China: a Survey Research
Abstract
Background The education of general practice has developed rapidly in recent years in China, but there is still a lack of comprehensive survey for undergraduate general practice education. Objective To understand the current situation and development trend of undergraduate general practice teaching in China. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the offices of academic affairs of all colleges and universities offering clinical medicine programs in China (n=189) in December 2019, the questionnaires included teaching institutions, faculty and curriculum construction of general practice, which were collected in June 2020. The colleges and universities were categorized into four types for analysis, including comprehensive universities, single-subject colleges (medical colleges or pharmaceutical colleges) , Chinese medicine (TCM) colleges and independent colleges to compare differences in the teaching of undergraduate general practice at different types of colleges and universities. Results A total of 175 valid questionnaires were returned, with a response rate of 92.6%. In 2019, 85.7% (150/175) of colleges and universities had undergraduate general practice teaching institutions, and the total number of general practice faculty members in colleges and universities nationwide reached 3 371, with 59.8% (2 016/3 371) of them working in the department of general practice in affiliated hospitals. Among the 175 colleges and universities that participated in the survey, 142 (81.1%) offered elective or compulsory courses in general practice, 68 (38.9%) offered graduation practice in general practice in community health centers, and 22 (12.6%) offered graduation practice in general practice in general hospitals. Among the four types of colleges and universities, the proportion of general practice departments set up in general hospitals and affiliated hospitals of single-subject colleges was over 90.0%, the proportion of TCM colleges was 70.0% (7/10) , and the proportion of independent colleges was only 63.3% (19/30) ; the proportion of independent colleges offering elective or compulsory courses in general practice was 60.0% (18/30) , while the proportions of other three types of colleges and universities offering elective or compulsory courses were ≥80.0%. The proportion of single-subject colleges carrying out graduation practice in general practice in community health centers was the highest (61.2%, 30/49) , followed by comprehensive universities (36.0%, 31/86) , and the proportions of independent colleges and TCM colleges were≤20.0%; the proportion of comprehensive universities and single-subject colleges carrying out graduation practice in general practice in general hospital was over 10.0%, while the proportion of independent colleges was 6.7% (2/30) . Conclusion The development of undergraduate general practice education has been relatively rapid in recent years, but there are still many problems, such as general practice undergraduate education is not widely carried out and developed unevenly, non-community faculty members lack practice experience in primary care, teaching and evaluation methods are simple. There is still a need to further improve the universality and balance of development in the future, and to strengthen teacher training, and enrich teaching methods and evaluation tools.
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