Family medicine
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This study examined attitudes of medical students at a private Catholic medical school toward religion in medical education and practice and the relationship of these attitudes to medical student religiosity. ⋯ A significant minority of medical students at this Catholic university supported attention to religious issues in the medical school curriculum. The percentage might be lower at medical schools with no religious affiliation. The data indicate that students' religiosity is associated with their support for religious inquiry with patients and for the inclusion of religious issues in the medical school curriculum.
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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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Family practice residency program directors and faculty are frequently faced with residents who sustain a temporary illness or become disabled during residency. In addition, disabled applicants are seeking positions in medical schools and residencies. Program directors and faculty have an obligation to understand the laws that apply to disability and illness to develop fair and workable policies within their programs. ⋯ One of the key requirements for dealing with resident illness or disability is the development of essential job functions. We present a strategy to enable individual residency programs to develop a list of essential job requirements for family practice residents. An example of essential job requirements is given.