Comparison of general practice residents’ attitudes and perceptions about training in two programmes in China: a mixed methods survey

What is it about?

While the Chinese government mandated that general practice (GP) trainees receive standardized training in 2011, research on GP residents’ views about training in China is limited. This study sought to understand GP residents’ attitudes about their residency training, and compare opinions from two GP residencies, one in Shenzhen—a standard training program, and one in Beijing—an educationally innovative program. The study objective was to understand GP residents’ attitudes about their residency training in China. The design involved a mixed methods cross-sectional survey adapted from two previous studies and distributed with the intent of: understanding the views of residents across the programs, describing GP residents’ perspectives about the domains of interest, and merging the findings together to achieve an understanding of the breadth and depth of opinions. The mixed data collection survey comprised of 53 Likert scale items and 8 open-ended questions and was completed by 35 residents in Beijing and 70 residents in Shenzhen. Major outcomes were satisfaction with GP training overall and differences between the training sites and providing an enhanced understanding with qualitative data to achieve robust findings. Overall, residents felt discrimination because of specialty choice, and that they lacked competency as a GP. Many residents commented faculty had negative teaching attitudes. Beijing residents were more satisfied than Shenzhen residents with their training, and felt teaching faculty had sufficient knowledge, and appropriate attitudes towards teaching. Beijing residents more strongly agreed on five items about good future job prospects. Overall, these Chinese GP residents identify areas for improvement in their training as well as strengths. The higher levels of satisfaction with faculty teaching and job optimism in Beijing where GP residents receive training from specifically qualified faculty and can earn special certification, suggest that educational innovations enhance training and promote resident positivity about job prospects. In addition to the study content findings, this study represents the first known example of collection of quantitative and qualitative data, deliberately conducted as mixed methods survey with a focus on integration of findings in the field of GP in China, and provides an exemplar for others in the field.

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