Studying the educational needs of general medical graduates in selected areas

Background: Despite the large amount of information that general practitioners need to receive, as well as their time limitation to be prepared as doctors entering the treatment fields, it is necessary to prioritize a learning formulation and design more educational programs for them. This study aims to determine the most important priorities of general medical graduates in selected fields. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on 400 general practitioners working at least 3 years since their onset of clinical practice as general practitioner. They were selected by random sampling. Data were collected through demographic variables and valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaires in four domains including internal disease (18 items), neurological diseases (7 items), pediatrics (26 items) and emergency medicine (20 items). Data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics and chi- square test. Results: Three primary priorities in internal medicine were blood pressure (76%), diabetes (68.3%) and hyperlipidemia (61.5%). In pediatric the priorities were: fever (72%), gastroenteritis (58%) and pneumonia (59.8%), while in neurology they were: headache (78.3%), dizziness (54.8%), and limb weakness (27.3%). As well as in emergency medicine blood pressure (77%), asthma attack (46 %), and trauma (41%) were considered as the priorities. There were no significant differences in education priorities in some internal and pediatric areas including diabetes, fever, and Gastroenteritis by sex (p 0.05). There was a significant difference in the three educational priorities in emergency medicine area by employment duration (p 0.05). Conclusion: Appropriate needs assessment and designing educational programs tailored to the needs of general practitioners in order to improve their level of science, so that they could consequently have better performance by prioritizing appropriate health care.