A Survey of University of Medical Sciences’ Health Care Professionals on the Current and Ideal Role of General Practitioners in Iran

Background and purpose: roles and tasks of intended graduates direct medical eductionist for developing the right curriculum. In Iran there has been no systematic study on defining GPs roles. This study is an attempt to systematically clarify the roles of GPs in Iran.Methods: In this questionnaire – based survey health care professionals participated. The subjects were selected through convinient sampling and snowballing. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed which covered the goals and functions of health system as mentioned in World Health Report 2000. For content validity a panel of experts including health care professionals, biostatisticians, and psychometrist evaluated the questionnaire. For the reliability of the questionnaire a pilot study was carried out. Chronbach’s coeficient were calculated as 0.89 .The final revision of the questionnaire included 15 roles in current and ideal states. The respondent should score each role in both states in a range of 0-100.Results: Of 50 subjects who received the questionnaire, 40 (80%) completed and returned it. Of all subjects 30% were female and 70% were male. Of all subjects 90% were faculty members. The subjects believe that in the current state “health care provision” (74.7.3±29.7) “health center administration” (37±21.8), and “leading clinical services and coordinating patients care” (29.5±24.4) are more evident while “fund holding” is rather non-existence (1.2±3.7). They believed that in an ideal national health system physicians should play most of these roles in various extents.Conclusion: The participants believed that GPs should play other roles beyond the clinical care provision to enable health system respond to community needs and expectations. The graduate medical degree should be reformed if the gradates are going to play these new roles.