Family medicine
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This study examined the extent to which physicians expressed empathy and positiveness to Hispanic and non-Hispanic white patients during primary care visits. ⋯ Our findings illustrate that the resident physicians expressed empathy equally well to Hispanic and non-Hispanic white patients but that resident physicians need further training on how to express positiveness to patients from different ethnic backgrounds, especially Hispanic patients.
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While the specialty of family practice has achieved parity with other specialties in many areas, it lags behind in research productivity. This article explores current and historical funding levels of family medicine research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR). ⋯ The NIH is an increasingly important source of support for family medicine researchers, while AHCPR support has plateaued. Even though NIH support of family physician researchers is increasing, the proportion of NIH funding awarded to family medicine departments remains below the proportion of US medical school faculty who are family physicians. One possible cause of this discrepancy is a lack of a locus of primary care and family medicine research funding.
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Because of the increasing work demands posed by the new supervisory requirements of IL 372, coupled with budget constraints resulting from decreasing external grant funding and shrinking practice revenues, departments must weigh workplace needs against faculty resources. Following a period of faculty shortage, the Department of Family Medicine at East Carolina University expected to achieve balance in staffing its department's clinical services, teaching obligations, and scholarly activities once additional faculty were hired. While relief from work obligations was noted once new hires were in place, there remained inadequate faculty to meet all the identified demands of the department. ⋯ To meet the increasing time demands on faculty in academic medical centers, departments need to have an accurate accounting of both workforce availability and work demands. The faculty workload assessment model described in this report can be used to generate such an accounting.