• Jason Xu, John Billimek, and Brian Y Kim.
• Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA.
• Fam Med. 2024 Oct 1; 56 (9): 579583579-583.

Background And ObjectivesMusculoskeletal (MSK) complaints comprise more than 20% of all visits to health care providers each year. Despite required experiences in MSK care, family physicians report low confidence in diagnosing and treating MSK conditions. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of early and longitudinal exposure to MSK education on residents' confidence in and likelihood of performing MSK physical exams and injections in future practice.MethodsFrom 2017 to 2019, residents completed an annual survey assessing confidence in, frequency of, and future intentions to perform exams and injections for MSK conditions. We compared responses between family medicine residents who completed a 176-hour longitudinal sports medicine (LSM) curriculum distributed over all 3 years of residency and a comparable cohort of family medicine residents who completed a 188-hour concentrated MSK curriculum primarily in the final year of residency. We made comparisons using the Fisher exact test for categorical variables and an independent samples t test for numeric variables.ResultsWe analyzed the 98 total responses from 50 residents. The proportion of residents reporting high ratings of their residency MSK education (26% to 60%), performing >5 injections (38% to 73%), reporting confidence in performing injections (12% to 40%), and indicating likelihood to perform MSK injections in the future (52% to 65%) were all greater in the LSM versus concentrated MSK curriculum cohorts (P<.05 for all).ConclusionsEarly and longitudinal exposure to MSK care and sports medicine in family medicine residency led to both an increase in MSK injections during residency training and a greater desire to perform these injections in postresidency practice.

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