Family medicine
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Burnout is considered a public health crisis among physicians and is related to poor quality of life, increased medical errors, and lower patient satisfaction. A recent literature review and conceptual model suggest that awareness of life meaning, or meaning salience, is related to improved stress and coping, and may also reduce experience of burnout. This study examined associations among meaning salience, burnout, fatigue, and quality of life among family medicine residency program directors. ⋯ The potential for increasing physicians' awareness of their sense of meaning as a means to prevent or decrease burnout is underresearched and warrants further study. Both preventive measures (eg, wellness curricula) and interventions with already-distressed physicians may encourage regular reflection on meaning in life, especially during busy workdays.
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Precepting methods have significant impact on the financial viability of family medicine residency programs. Following an adverse event, four University of Minnesota Family Medicine residency clinics moved from using Medicare's Primary Care Exception (PCE) and licensure precepting (LP) to a "universal precepting" method in which preceptors see every patient face to face. Variation in the implementation of universal precepting created a natural experiment of its financial impact. ⋯ Clinics transitioning from PCE to universal precepting can see a significant increase in 99214 billing. Clinics transitioning from LP to universal precepting are at significant financial risk if poorly implemented, but may see increased 99214 billing with effective implementation. This suggests that both implementation quality and original precepting method impact 99214 billing rates when transitioning to universal precepting.
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Medical students often lack curricular offerings specific to the care of underserved populations. We surveyed first- and second-year students to inform the development of a 4-week course on the skills necessary to care and advocate for underserved populations within a primary care context. This study assessed students' interest in the potential course, interest in primary care (PC) and underserved care (UC), and factors that would make the course more or less interesting to students. ⋯ This manuscript outlines potential areas of engagement for students demonstrating low or high interest in a Caring for Underserved Patients course. Our study may inform educators seeking to develop similar curricular interventions, particularly those who aim to recruit students to PC or UC careers.