Benefits and Barriers to Teaching Medical Students in an Ob-Gyn Clinic

• Main Authors: Michael F. Fialkow (Author), Carrie M. Snead (Author), Jay Schulkin (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: SAGE Publishing, 2018-02-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2333-3928; 10.1177/2333392817753518
• Keywords: Medicine (General); R5-920; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Health Services Research & Managerial Epidemiology, Vol 5 (2018)

Introduction: As the US health-care system has evolved over the past decade, access to obstetric care in rural communities has declined, and there has been a challenge in retaining obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN) providers to train the next generation of physicians. The current pilot study sought to identify the factors that influence faculty who train medical students within the field of OB-GYN with the hope of influencing recruitment and retention of providers for the future. Methods: Clinical OB-GYN faculty within the University of Washington School of Medicine regional medical education program were surveyed about practice patterns and beliefs regarding medical student training as part of a pilot study on provider recruitment and retention. Results: Fifty-seven eligible respondents completed the survey. Most (88.9%) reported their hospitals encourage student participation in patient care. Students in their practices participate in many aspects of patient care, including conducting exams (96.2%) and participating in the operating room (94.3%). The majority found the rewarding aspects of teaching medical students to be intellectual stimulation (90.9%), continuing the tradition of medical teaching (87.5%), and the intrinsic satisfaction of teaching (83.6%). Challenging aspects of teaching included reduced reimbursement (40%) and the student/workload (63.6%). Discussion: Medical student education continues to rely on a generation's medical professionals to impart their knowledge to the next. We hope that with a better understanding of the benefits of participation and minimization of the challenges, we can perpetuate this tradition despite the uncertainty in our health-care system.