Abstract
Background: Postgraduate training in Family Medicine in Nigeria began over three decades ago, but it was not until recently that the National University Commission (NUC) made it a policy for all Nigerian universities to include undergraduate Family Medicine training in their curriculum. This study aimed to assess the awareness and perception of Family Medicine among medical students at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of four weeks (June 11–July 6, 2018) among 131 fourth-year, 118 fifth-year and 163 sixth-year medical students at UCH, Ibadan. Data were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire.Results: Data were collected from 309 (75% of the target population). The mean age of the respondents was 22.3 ± 2.3 years. The majority (74.4%) did not have a family member who was a doctor and only 2.3% had a family member who was specialising inFamily Medicine. Most of the participants (68.9%) had good knowledge of Family Medicine, while 57.3% had good perception of Family Medicine as a specialty. Importantly, an increase in year of clerkship was associated with an increase in the knowledge of Family Medicine among the respondents.Conclusion: It was observed that with increase in length of exposure to Family Medicine as a specialty, knowledge and perception of the specialty improved among the medical students. It is imperative that all the medical schools in Nigeria implement the NUC directive and start undergraduate Family Medicine training.
Highlights
The realisation of the essential role played by the family physician in the provision of quality first contact care and in the judicious use of limited resources has led to an increasing need for family physicians globally.[1]
This study showed that a significant number of medical students in the clinical years had a positive knowledge of Family Medicine as a specialty
The final-year medical students who had been exposed to a total of eight weeks of Family Medicine clerkship in addition to Family Medicine core lectures obviously demonstrated better knowledge of Family Medicine compared with the fifth-year medical students who had four weeks’ clerkship and the fourth-year medical students who were yet to undergo a clinical clerkship posting in Family Medicine
Summary
The realisation of the essential role played by the family physician in the provision of quality first contact care and in the judicious use of limited resources has led to an increasing need for family physicians globally.[1]. In Nigeria, family physicians are sometimes perceived as being synonymous with medical officers, who are generalists with the basic medical degree and skills that are acquired from years of clinical practice without any structured postgraduate training or recertification.[4] The core competencies that distinguishes a family physician from a medical officer include patient/person centred clinical methods (PCCM), using the biopsychosocial model of care, primary care management, specific problem-solving skills, a comprehensive approach and holistic modelling[2] These competencies are best introduced early from the foundation years of medical school and should be ingrained in every doctor’s basic medical training This is currently lacking in the medical education obtained by most medical officers. It is imperative that all the medical schools in Nigeria implement the NUC directive and start undergraduate Family Medicine training
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