Objective To investigate the feedback of continuing medical education (CME) based on short message service (SMS) for village doctors in Gaolan County of Gansu Province, and to explore how to improve the efficiency of CME based on SMS. Methods A total of 75 village doctors were investigated with a questionnaire when attending the training program conducted by the Health Bureau of Gaolan County. Results A total of 75 valid questionnaires were collected back. The statistical analyses showed that 56% of the doctors received the majority of the messages sent to them, of whom, 98% could read the messages promptly, 81% saved the majority of the messages they received, 98% could read the saved massages occasionally, 25% transmitted messages to others, 93% thought that the messages might be helpful in varying degrees, 96% would like to continue receiving the messages in the future, 51% thought the biggest shortcoming of the messages was the poor relevance to their concern, and 70% wanted the most to receive short messages about clinical diagnosis and treatment. At present, 39% of the doctors thought the most convenient approaches to get the updated medical knowledge are attending the study or training program organized by higher authorities, while 37% thought those are reading short messages on the mobile, websites or papers. Conclusion The village doctors are willing to receive the short messages about the best clinical evidence. However, both the receiving rate and use rate of the short messages have yet to improve. A complete SMS transmission system and highly-relevant contents are regarded as important guarantees for improving the receiving rate and use rate.
Objective To know the training status and expectation of village doctors in remote and poor areas of Sichuan province and to provide the preferences for developing a viable and efficient training model. Methods The cluster sampling method, combined with questionnaire surveys and qualitative interviews, was used. A total of 463 village doctors of 302 village clinics in Pengzhou and Baoxing of Sichuan province were interviewed. Results The “three-side” phenomenon including the doctor being old, poor academic background and lack of female doctor in remote and poor areas of Sichuan was serious. In-service village doctors’ knowledge on public health and Chinese medicine increased through training. There were differences between the training village doctors participated and that they had expected. The cost of the training was somewhat high for rural doctors. The training system has not been established yet in remote areas. Conclusions Both quantity and quality should be considered in in-service village doctor training in remote areas of Sichuan Province, which should also consider local conditions and farmers’ needs . The in-service training system should be developed as soon as possible. It is suggested that the treatment of village doctors should be improved. Cultivating more young village doctors should be based on the stability of the medical team.
ObjectiveTo investigate the human resources of village doctors for integrated management among township hospitals and village clinics in Xinjing county of Chengdu in 2010, so as to provide the evidence for optimal allocation of human resources in village level. MethodsThe information of village doctors in 2010, such as age, gender, educational level, professional license and work experience, were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2003 and SPSS 13.0. Resultsa) In Xinjin county, 213 village doctors were managed by 11 township hospitals (TH) in 2010 with the average of 19 village doctors in each TH; b) only 3 out of 11 THs achieved the national requirement of at least one village doctor per 1 000 rural population; to a greater or lesser extent, the shortage of village doctors existed in the rest 8 THs; c) Among the village doctors, the male-to-female ratio was 2.2 (68.5% vs. 31.5%). The village doctors younger than 45 years, 45 to 59 years, or no less than 60 years accounted for 42.8%, 18.8%, 38.5%, respectively. Those who graduated from secondary schools or elementary schools accounted for 90% (52.6% and 38%, respectively). d) Only 94.8% had the village doctor license. Among the 213 village doctors, only 1.4% and 3.6% were registered doctors or assistant doctors respectively. Those who worked longer than 30 years, 20-29 years, 10 to 19 years, and 5 to 9 years accounted for 44.6%, 12.2%, 29.6% and 6.1%, respectively. ConclusionThe quantity and quality of the village doctors in Xinjin county were insufficient to meet the requirement with aging teams, low education levels, and lack of professional qualifications. Therefore, the related policies should be implemented to maintain the stability of the village doctor teams, to improve the qualification and quality of service, and to promote the sustainable development of primary healthcare services.