Working in preventive medicine or not? Flawed perceptions decrease chance of retaining students for the profession

BACKGROUND

Recruiting and retaining students in preventive medical (PM) specialties has never been easy; one main challenge is how to select appropriate students with proper motivation. Understanding how students perceive PM practice differently from practicing doctors is necessary to guide students, especially for those for whom PM is only a substitute for medicine as their first study preference, properly during their study and, later, the practice of PM.

METHODS

One thousand three hundred eighty-six PM students in four Vietnamese medical schools and 101 PM doctors filled out a questionnaire about the relevance of 44 characteristics of working in PM. ANOVAs were conducted to define the relationship between students' interest, year of study, willingness to work in PM, and the degree to which students had realistic perceptions of PM practice, compared to doctors' perceptions.

RESULTS

Overall, compared to doctors' perceptions, students overestimated the importance of most of the investigated PM practice's characteristics. Moreover, students' perception related to their preference and willing to pursue a career in PM after graduation. In particular, students for whom PM was their first choice had more realistic perceptions of community practice than those who chose PM as their second choice. And, second-choice students had more realistic perceptions than first-choice students in their final years of study, but expected higher work stress in PM practice. Students who were willing to pursue a career in PM rated the importance of community practice higher than those who were not. We also found that students' perception changed during training as senior students had more realistic perceptions of clinical aspects and working stress than junior students, even though they overemphasized the importance of the community aspects of PM practice.

CONCLUSIONS

To increase the number of students actually entering the PM field after graduation, the flawed perceptions of students about the real working environment of PM doctors should be addressed through vocation-oriented activities in the curriculum targeted on groups of students who are most likely to have unrealistic perceptions. Our findings also have implications for other less attractive primary health care specialties that experience problems with recruiting and retaining students.

Hypertension treatment practices and its determinants among ambulatory patients: retrospective cohort study in Ethiopia

OBJECTIVES

We examined determinants of achieving blood pressure control in patients with hypertension and of treatment intensification in patients with uncontrolled blood pressure (BP).

DESIGN

A retrospective cohort study in six public hospitals, Ethiopia.

PARTICIPANTS

Adult ambulatory patients with hypertension and with at least one previously prescribed antihypertensive medication in the study hospital.

OUTCOME

Controlled BP (<140/90 mm Hg) and treatment intensification of patients with uncontrolled BP.

RESULTS

The study population comprised 897 patients. Their mean age was 57 (SD 14) years, 63% were females, and 35% had one or more cardiometabolic comorbidities mainly diabetes mellitus. BP was controlled in 37% of patients. Treatment was intensified for 23% patients with uncontrolled BP. In multivariable (logistic regression) analysis, determinants positively associated with controlled BP were treatment at general hospitals (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.26 to 2.83) compared with specialised hospitals and longer treatment duration (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.06). Negatively associated determinants were previously uncontrolled BP (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.43), treatment regimens with diuretics (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.94) and age (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.98 to 1.00). The only significant-positive-determinant for treatment intensification was duration of therapy (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.09).

CONCLUSIONS

The level of controlled BP and treatment intensification practice in this study was low. The findings suggest the need for in-depth understanding and interventions of the identified determinants such as uncontrolled BP on consecutive visits, older age and type of hospital.