The Journal of family practice
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This study was designed to identify differences in parental behaviors and the availability of food between undernourished and well-nourished inner-city children of early school age. Children with a constellation of measurements of height below the 25th percentile, midarm muscle circumference below the 50th percentile, and hemoglobin concentration below 11.5 g/dL were considered undernourished. ⋯ Families of undernourished children were found to have significantly less variety of nutritious foods requiring preparation by an adult available in the home (P less than .01), to have greater variety of convenience foods of low nutritional value (P less than .01), and to prefer fewer vegetables (P less than .04) and dairy products (P less than .01). The Polansky Child Level of Living Scale showed that mothers of undernourished children were less likely to prepare meals regularly for their children (P less than .05) and that they were less effective in providing general parental support to their children (P less than .03).
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Of the more than 350 family practice residency programs in the United States, 72 are affiliated with a medical school. Seventy-eight percent of these university programs hospitalize all or some of their patients at a university hospital. ⋯ Only one program does not use the university hospital because of difficulty in obtaining privileges. Family physicians are unable to obtain various hospital privileges because of political reasons at the following percentages of university hospitals: general medicine (2 percent), adult intensive care (33 percent), coronary care (40 percent), general pediatrics (8 percent), pediatric intensive care (31 percent), newborn nursery (8 percent), intensive care nursery (29 percent), routine obstetrics (13 percent), and high-risk obstetrics (17 percent).
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The cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) experience of a family practice residency program within a community hospital was reviewed for the period of July 1, 1979, to June 30, 1981. CPR was attempted 300 times on 242 patients experiencing cardiopulmonary arrest. The emergency department and operating room were excluded from the study. ⋯ The length of time of each of the code conditions was determined, and its relationship to overall survival rates was found to be inversely proportional. Advanced age did not adversely affect the final outcome of successful attempts. This study reaffirmed the expectation that consistently good results can be obtained if the physician, staff, and resuscitation team members are properly prepared and clear role delineation exists.
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Academic development is recognized as a necessary requirement in family medicine and can be measured in part by assessing the experience with the promotions and tenure process in university departments. In this study a questionnaire was distributed to the chairmen of departments of family practice with direct medical school affiliations. The chairmen were asked to describe the current rank profile of the faculty in their departments and their perception of the importance of various criteria on promotion and tenure decisions at their school. ⋯ Research quality and quantity were considered the most important positive influences on promotions and tenure decisions. Teaching skills were slightly less important, and patient care and administrative skills were not important influences. This project demonstrates that (1) family practice faculties are relatively underdeveloped with respect to senior, tenured positions, (2) research is highly important to achieve promotion and tenure, but little time is available to the faculty to do that research, and (3) the needs of the departments in the areas of patient care and administration may conflict with the requirements for promotion and tenure.