Primary Care: The Future for Pediatric Education

Abstract

There is a continuing crisis in primary care, characterized by inadequate numbers of appropriately trained primary care physicians and the failure to mount an effective and consistent graduate educational program for primary care. This paper reviews the history of the primary care crisis; revisits the definition of primary care; and, through identification of critical issues, presents a primary care educational agenda for the 1990s. Pediatrics is at a crossroads regarding primary care, as powerful social and economic forces are impacting on today's major pediatric care problems. Before the second World War there were more than 300 primary care physicians available for each 100 000 of our population. Today the ratio is 75 for 100 000. This is despite the fact that a shortage of 50 000 physicians 10 years ago no longer exists. The majority view is that a physician surplus of 70 000 will be present by the early 1990s.1 Whether there is a surplus is subject to interpretation and the surplus may end up as nonexistent. Moreover, the availability of primary care physicians varies with geographic location, and even a single figure for this nation provides a distorted picture. The shortage is especially serious in inner cities and in many rural areas. In addition, the use of overall numbers assumes that all primary care physicians are appropriately trained in the general disciplines. For the past century, physicians have cared for patients usually as family physicians. Today, however, the generalist has been replaced by the specialist. Is this a function of financial rewards and society's needs and values or the educational experience?