Mixed methods research of pediatric professional training for general practitioners: taking Longhua District of Shenzhen as an example

Jiawei ZHANG; Jianguang QI; Zhennan QI; Miao ZHANG; Zihan PAN; Conglei YOU; Chunhua CHI

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To investigate the past continuing medical education (CME) in pediatrics for general practitioners in community health centers in Longhua District, Shenzhen, so as to explore the willingness, needs and suggestions of general practitioners for CME in pediatrics.

Methods:

A mixed methods research were used in this study. Firstly, the purpose sampling method was used to select general practitioners in community health centers in Longhua District, Shenzhen for personal in-depth interviews. The interview contents were recorded and transcribed. The interview contents were coded by NVivo software. Theme frame analysis method was used for data sorting and theme extraction. Based on the results of qualitative interviews, the questionnaire was developed and distributed through the electronic questionnaire platform, and relevant questionnaire data were analyzed by Excel.

Results:

The results of qualitative research showed that after personal in-depth interviews with 10 general practitioners, the information reached saturation. Through repeated reading, induction and analysis of the interview data, four themes were extracted ① previous pediatric training opportunities and satisfaction; ② willingness to participate in pediatric training; ③ the demand of training content, form and duration; ④ measures to encourage participation in training. In terms of quantitative research results, a total of 223 electronic questionnaires were collected, among which there were 219 valid questionnaires. Besides, 150 (68.5%) general practitioners said that they had no or only a few training opportunities in pediatrics CME in the past. There were some problems in the past CME training, such as unsystematic training (39 practitioners, 66.1%), narrow course coverage (30 practitioners, 50.8%), the content divorced from clinical practice (29 practitioners, 49.2%), monotonous teaching method (27 practitioners, 45.8%), etc. And 210 (95.9%) general practitioners were willing to participate in pediatric training, and 161 (73.5%) hoped that the form of training would be a combination of online and offline. In terms of pediatrics specialty content training needs, the general practitioners had higher demand for respiratory (188 practitioners, 85.8%), digestive (160 practitioners, 73.1%), infectious (145 practitioners, 66.2%) and dermatology (136 practitioners, 62.1%) specialty.

Conclusion:

There are still some problems in pediatrics CME, such as few training opportunities, unsystematic training, etc. In the future, we need to formulate systematic training plans and incentive measures according to the needs of general practitioners, to strengthen the pediatric professional training for general practitioners and improve their ability to receive children, in order to promote the implementation of hierarchical medical system for children.