Study of Changes in Knowledge of Primary Health Care among Medical Interns Attending the Community Medicine Posting

Abstract

Background: Internship is the best period foracquiring practical knowledge and skills in com-munity medicine to become a successful pri-mary health care physician. Effectiveness ofinternship has been questioned in many researchpapers. Internship in India is clinically orientedwith inadequate community experience. Objec-tives: This study was conducted among medi-cal interns with the objective of assessing thebase line knowledge about application of prin-ciples of primary health care and the change inknowledge about the same at the end of theCommunity Medicine posting. Methods: All theinterns attending the community medicineposting were included in the study. A structuredquestionnaire related to principles and elementsof primary health care was self administeredbefore and after the Community Medicine post-ing. Marking system was devised and WilcoxonSinged rank test, Paired ‘t’ test and Pearson’scorrelation coefficient were applied whereverappropriate. Results: Among 9 questions re-lated to the theory aspect only two showed sta-tistically significant improvement. All the sixquestions related to practical aspect did notshow any significant change. Conclusion: In-ternship training of two months in CommunityMedicine has failed to create a positive impacton the post test scores, indicating no gain inknowledge during this period. Framework ofinternship training, especially in CommunityMedicine needs to be restructured. Further re-search needs to be directed to understand thefelt needs of the medical interns and reasonsfor their poor performance.

Keywords

• Internship
• Community Medi- cine
• Effectiveness