Current status and training requirement of rural doctors in Hebei Province

Abstract

Objective To survey the current status and training requirement of rural doctors in Hebei province. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among1 200 rural doctors selected from 11 cities of Hebei province by stratified sampling from October to December 2017. The self-designed questionnaire included general condition, job satisfaction, impact of medical reform policies, training needs of rural doctors. Results A total of 1 200 questionnaires were distributed and 1 170 valid ones were retrieved with a recovery rate of 97.5%. Among the 1 170 responders, there were 726 males(62.1%) and 444 females (37.9%); 748 (63.9%) were aged more than 40 years;612 (52.3%) hold secondary school degree; 826 (70.6%) had been working in the village for more than 10 years, and the overall job satisfaction rate was 30.8% (360/1 170). Among all responders, 73.8% (864/1 170) worked in the standardized village clinics, and 72.0% (842/1 170) were contracted with local residents as family doctors; 52.8% (618/1 170) responders believed that the reform policy improved the health care for villagers. In all responders, 98% (1 147/1 170) thought they needed training, 93.6% (1 095/1 170) had received training. The training contents they most needed werethe management of common diseases (904, 77.3%), followed by medical humanities(650, 55.6%) and first aid knowledge (492, 42.1%). The influencing factors for training were lack of time, no energy (656, 54.3%), lack of appropriate training forms (510, 43.6%), economic reasons (476, 40.3%) and so on. Conclusion The working status of rural doctors need to befurther improvedand the training need to be strengthened to increase their job satisfaction. Key words: Physicians, primary care; Rural health services; Questionnaire