Abstract
BackgroundTraining of family physicians should include not only clinical and procedural skills, but also core values as comprehensive care, continuity of care, leadership and patient-centeredness. The Gezira Family Medicine Project (GFMP) is a 2 years Master’s programme in family medicine in Sudan. We assessed the impact of GFMP on the candidates’ adherence to some core values of family medicine.MethodsThis is a prospective study with before-after design based on repeated surveys. We used Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) to assess physicians’ attitude towards patient-centeredness. Practice based data from individual patients’ consultations and self-assessment methods were used to assess physicians’ adherence to core values.ResultsAt the end of the programme the candidates (N = 110) were significantly more active in community health promotion (p < 0.001), more confident as a team leader (p = 0.008), and showed increased adherence to national guidelines for managing diabetes (p = 0.017) and hypertension (p = 0.003). The responding candidates had more knowledge about patients’ medical history (p < 0.001), family history (p < 0.001) and family situation (p < 0.001). There were more planned follow up consultations (p < 0.001) and more referrals (p = 0.040). In contrast, results from PPOS showed slightly less orientation towards patient-centeredness (p = 0.007).ConclusionsThe GFMP Master’s programme induced a positive change in adherence to several core values of family medicine. The candidates became less patient-centered.
Highlights
Training of family physicians should include clinical and procedural skills, and core values as comprehensive care, continuity of care, leadership and patient-centeredness
In Sub-Saharan Africa the Primafamed project has provided a network for collaboration, information, experience exchange and resources sharing for those engaged in such training [10]
Primary health care is provided through health centers, which are served by generalist doctors who have a Bachelor degree of Medicine and Surgery, but without any postgraduate training
Summary
Training of family physicians should include clinical and procedural skills, and core values as comprehensive care, continuity of care, leadership and patient-centeredness. Excessive specialization of health care providers and fragmentation of health care systems still discourage a holistic approach to individuals and their families in most countries. This occurs in spite of the accumulated. The ideas of family medicine based primary care contains some core values that should guide family physicians during the curative work, and during roles in preventive care, health promotion, community mobilization, research, leadership and resource allocation [5,6,7,8,9]. Many postgraduate family medicine training programmes have emerged worldwide to promote the specialty and its values, so in low and middle income countries (LMIC) [10,11,12]. In Sub-Saharan Africa the Primafamed project has provided a network for collaboration, information, experience exchange and resources sharing for those engaged in such training [10]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
